Credit, THE VINDOLANDA TRUST
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The wooden object was found in a ditch among dozens of shoes and other accessories.
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A wooden object discovered in a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in Britain may have been a 2ndcentury sex toy.
Experts said the artifact, found in a ditch in Vindolanda Fortress, may be the oldest example of a wooden phallus ever discovered anywhere in the ancient Roman Empire.
However, they said they hadn’t ruled out the possibility that it was a good luck symbol or a tool used to grind ingredients.
Initially they thought it was a weaving tool.
The object was discovered alongside dozens of shoes, accessories and other small tools along with remains of leather at the archaeological site near Hexham in Northumberland.
‘Smooth on both ends’
However, experts from the University of Newcastle in the UK and University College Dublin in Ireland believe the object, which measures around 16cm, may have had a more intimate use.
Upon analyzing the artifact, they found that both ends were visibly smoother, indicating repeated use over time.
“We know that the ancient Romans and Greeks used sexual instruments this object from Vindolanda could be an example of that,” says Rob Collins, professor of archeology at the University of Newcastle.
Phalluses were widespread in the Roman Empire as they were believed to offer protection from bad luck.
Many are depicted in works of art, carved in pottery, or represented in bone or metal miniatures, which were often used as pendants for jewelry.
Credit, Historic England Archive/Heritage Images via Getty Images
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The object has now been displayed at the archaeological site near Hexham in Northumberland.
Archaeologists said another possibility is that the object was used as a pestle to grind ingredients for cosmetics or medicines, and its shape was thought to add properties believed to be magical.
Or it could have been attached to a statue and then rubbed for good luck, as they wrote in the trade journal Antiquity.
“The wooden phallus may be the only one to have survived from this period, but it is unlikely that it was the only one of its kind used at the archaeological site, along the frontier, or even in Roman Britain,” says Barbara Birley . Curator of the Vindolanda Trust where the object is now on display.