BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ancient phallus unearthed in cave
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Last Updated: Monday, 25 July 2005, 12:04 GMT 13:04 UK
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Ancient phallus unearthed in cave
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By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter
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A sculpted and polished
phallus found in a
German cave is among
the earliest
representations of male
sexuality ever uncovered,
researchers say.
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The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide
stone object, which is dated
to be about 28,000 years
old, was buried in the
famous Hohle Fels Cave near
Ulm in the Swabian Jura.
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The prehistoric "tool" was
reassembled from 14
fragments of siltstone.
Its life size suggests it may
well have been used as a
sex aid by its Ice Age
makers, scientists report.
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It may also have been used to
knap, or split, flints
More details
"In addition to being a
symbolic representation of male genitalia, it was also at
times used for knapping flints," explained Professor
Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory
and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University.
"There are some areas where it has some very typical
scars from that," he told the BBC News website.
Researchers believe the object's distinctive form and
etched rings around one end mean there can be little
doubt as to its symbolic nature.
"It's highly polished; it's
clearly recognisable," said
Professor Conard.
The Tübingen team working
Hohle Fels already had 13
fractured parts of the phallus
in storage, but it was only
with the discovery of a 14th
fragment last year that the
team was able finally to put
the "jigsaw" together.
The Hohle Fels bird
Enlarge Image
The different stone sections were all recovered from a
well-dated ash layer in the cave complex associated with
the activities of modern humans (not their pre-historic
"cousins", the Neanderthals).
21.10.2005 11:08
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ancient phallus unearthed in cave
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4713323.stm
The dig site is one of the most remarkable in central
Europe. Hohle Fels stands more than 500m above sea
level in the Ach River Valley and has produced thousands
of Upper Palaeolithic items.
Some have been truly
exquisite in their
sophistication and detail,
such as a 30,000-year-old
avian figurine crafted from
mammoth ivory. It is
believed to be one of the
earliest representations of a
bird in the archaeological
record.
There are other stone objects
known to science that are
obviously phallic symbols and
are slightly older - from
France and Morocco, of
particular note. But to have
any representation of male
genitalia from this time
period is highly unusual.
Female forms, such as the
Venus of Willendorf are
"Female representations with 30,000-year-old
more common
highly accentuated sexual
attributes are very well documented at many sites, but
male representations are very, very rare," explained
Professor Conard.
Current evidence indicates that the Swabian Jura of
southwestern Germany was one of the central regions of
cultural innovation after the arrival of modern humans in
Europe some 40,000 years ago.
The Hohle Fels phallus will go on show at Blaubeuren
prehistoric museum in an exhibition called Ice Art Clearly Male.
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21.10.2005 11:08