VICE
Archaeologists in the UK have learned a tool originally believed to mend clothes could be the first Ancient Roman dildo ever discovered.
The ashwood object, originally recovered in 1992 and catalogued as a darning tool, was revisited and reclassified recently after being examined by archaeologists, who thought it was a dick.
University College Dublin professor in archaeology Rob Sands noticed it whilst assessing wooden objects which have been found in Vindolanda, near Newcastle in north-east England.
Vindolanda was a Roman fort a mile south of Hadrian’s Wall, under occupation between roughly 85 AD to 370 AD.
“He came across this object and said, ‘ah yes, this is a dick,’” co-researcher Rob Collins, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Newcastle University, told VICE World News over video call.
Collins, who researches notions of sexuality in the Roman frontier, and Sands have not been able to establish the true purpose of the phallus, but their joint wood expertise has led to three compelling possibilities for the object which dates back to the second century AD.
Their findings were published today in a paper titled Touch wood: luck, protection, power or pleasure? A wooden phallus from Vindolanda Roman fort.
The phallus is around 6.5 inches long, and was carved with a single tool like a knife or small blade.
That it may have been a sexual implement – which could mean a dildo, but also extends to its usage as a tool used between masters and slaves or in non-consenting scenarios – seems to be a real possibility, especially for Collins who believes a lack of sex research in general is thwarting better analysis.
“Something we do in archaeology is wear analysis, and there’s no wear analysis that’s been done on dildos,” he explained. “I suspect because of the wear on this one that, if it was used as a dildo, it would bend more for clitoral stimulation rather than penetration. For example because most of the wear is around the tip, and more to one side that suggests small repeated use or stroking.”
The best comparison that came to mind for Collins was an ivory dildo found outside a French nunnery in the 1700s.
The main obstacle to confirming it as a sex tool is that there has never been a confirmed dildo discovery at all from the Greco-Roman period, just a tonne of poetry written about them – meaning that the team had nothing physical to compare it to.
But this is likely down to the fact they would have been made from wood, which is often only well-preserved in boggy or desert-like conditions. Vindolanda happens to be one of the rare, damp sites where this happens.
“Ash is the kind of wood that you would use for making the handles of tools. It would have been commonly available, and in terms of it being carved as a phallus, it was just great,” Collins said. “I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on the topic by any means but it strikes me that the modern consumer is a bit spoiled for choice with different materials. In the ancient world, there’s not many.”
Other possible choices for dildo-making may have been stone or ceramic – allowing for less flexibility, and demanding greater skill to make – but these have never been discovered.
Fern Riddell, a cultural historian specialising in sex, told VICE World News: “It’s been such a long road to get the wider academic community to see sex history and the history of sexuality as an important field of study, so I absolutely celebrate the acknowledgement that this is designed as an erotic object – it’s the most likely use.”
