Prehistoric sex toys
The "ice-age baton" in all its glory.
Chris Wild
c. 30,000-0 B.C.
Carved chalk phallus from an infilled pit in a ditch of Maumbury rings, now at Dorset County Museum.
Credit: CM DIXON/PRINT COLLECTOR/GETTY IMAGES
The artificial phallus -- the dildo -- is very far from a new invention. In fact, the oldest known example dates about 30,000 years ago. Archaeologists gave it, and its kind, the euphemistic name of "ice-age batons."
Looking at the size, shape, and—some cases—explicit symbolism of the ice age batons, it seems disingenuous to avoid the most obvious and straightforward interpretation. <br>But it has been avoided. - TIMOTHY TAYLOR, ARCHAEOLOGIST
Paleolithic stone phallus discovered at Hohle Fels Cave, southwestern Germany. Made from fine-grained siltstone, ground, polished and incised. The phallus appears to have been also used as a hammerstone.
Credit: WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY / PREHISTORY MUSEUM, BLAUBEUREN
Carved stag antler phallus, Sweden. 10.5 cm long, 2 cm in diameter.
Credit: Peter Zetterlund, Swedish National Heritage Board
There are many non-dildoish uses for which it may have been intended but without doubt anyone at the time would have seen the penile similarities - Dr. Martin Rundkvist, archaeologist
Carved ivory phallus, France.
Credit: Loïc Hamon / Cuture.Gouv.Fr / Musée des Antiquités nationales,
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Several portable phallic pieces with replications of totally retracted or absent foreskin, piercings, scars and tattoos.
Credit: Javier Angulo / Hospital Universitario de Getafe