Peculiar object found at a 2,000-year-old Roman fort might actually be ancient sex toy
re-analyzed. Antiquity experts at Newcastle University and University College Dublin now think the object, which dates back to the second century AD, potentially had a sexual use.They note that “stone and metal phalli” were quite common across the Roman world.
Incorporated into mosaics, pendants and ceramics, people thought they possessed magical properties or the power to ward off evil spirits.However, this is the first wooden phallus identified.
Conditions at this particular location were ideal for the preservation of wooden objects. Organic materials tended to rot away at other sites.Dr.
Rob Collins, one of the authors of the study, told the Daily Mail: “If the object is a sex toy, we believe it could be the oldest example from Britain.”He notes the object is “carved from young ash roundwood, with a wide, cylindrical base bearing a convex end, narrower shaft and a terminal shaped to depict the glans.”It’s possible the item has shrunk slightly during its years buried, so it may have originally been slightly larger.The smoothness and polished appearance of certain parts of the phallus suggest ways in which it was handled or rubbed.Modern research demonstrates that people of different sexual orientation, age, and gender use dildos differently.
