It comes from the most extreme northern margins of the Roman Empire, in Northumberland, a county nestled between England and Scotland, what archaeologists define as the first and only sex toy dating back to that era, more or less life-size.
The object was found in 1992, in the Roman fort of Vindolanda, built by order of Gneo Giulio Agricola in 79, after the conquest of northern Britain, about two kilometers from the best preserved part of Hadrian’s Wall. But only recent studies have declared its age and intended use. At the beginning it was thought that it could be an accessory for sewing or a shoe, but a new study, published in the authoritative academic journal Antiquity, seems to overturn the perspective – literally – and, among the most accredited hypothesis indicates a wooden phallus, the first example of its kind.
As we read on Exibart, Vindolanda’s phallus is just over 15 inches long but it cannot be ruled out that it could have been larger, given that the wood – « which rarely manages to keep itself for so long – over the years is subject to a strong shrinkage and various deformations. Two- and three-dimensional representations of male genitalia were very common in Latino culture. They can be found in mosaics, vases, statues, amulets and pendants to wear, for what was a real cult. In ancient Roman religion, the term fascinum could refer both to the God Priapus and to effigies and phallic amulets against the evil eye».
Very widespread objects were, for example, the tintinnabula, i.e. rattles in the shape of a phallus which, driven by the wind, were exposed near the entrances of houses. In these specimens, the features are really on the verge of the absurd, at least for our gaze. To say, in one of these, exhibited in the famous Gabinetto Segreto of the MANN – National Archaeological Museum of Naples, we see a man, dressed as a gladiator and fully armed, fighting against his own phallus which, in turn, assumes the features of a wild beast. A panther, to be exact.