Here are two words you don’t expect to see together: Prehistoric Dildo. And yet spicing things up in the bedroom is nothing new. “The artificial phallus — the dildo — is very far from a new invention. In fact, the oldest known example dates about 30,000 years ago” reports Mashable. A carved chalk phallus from Neolithic England is clearly penile in shape, while a phallus carved from a stag antler dating from 6,000 BCE has been discovered in Sweden. Archaeologist Martin Rundkvist comments “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.”
Archaeologists have dubbed these prehistoric sex toys with the euphemistic–and painful-sounding–ice-age batons. According to archaeologist Tim Taylor, “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. But it has been avoided.” However, the World Erotic Art Museum‘s director, Tim Tarmago, thinks it is incorrect to assume they were only sex toys. “Most of these were revered items, placed in the home to promote fertility rather than for self-stimulation or intercourse,” Tarmago said. “The emphasis in these cultures was to produce large families that could continue the family line and cultural traditions, passing them from fathers to sons.”
