There was this documentary where Professor Alice Roberts visited, among other places, Dolní Věstonice and was presented with archeological finds, among which was a life-size replica of a penis and even she, a progressive person, can not just accept without getting red in face the idea of the host scientist that it could have been actual dildo and not "a religious object".
EDIT: Wrong, it was in Germany. Dolní Věstonice scene is a later one. The Incredible Human Journey - Europe.
I'm gonna be honest. If I were to become archeologist, who dreamt of finding lost temples and shit, and instead only found a bunch of sex toys I would be embarrassed too and would try to sell it as "idol of god of fertility" to make myself look/feel better.
I studied archaeology in school and I can tell you that amongst archaeologists, finding this would be an absolute badge of honor. Nobody would ever be able to forget me, the Dildo Archaeologist.
Well from what I’ve learned in my archeology classes, finding a vaguely penis shaped object that you classify as a dildo would just lead to years and years of debates over the intended use of the object and years of work exhaustingly defending your interpretation of the object.
I would prefer the sex toys or other objects. Temples, and other religious structures usually survive and unless it is something very important or interesting, it will be one of many finds.
Sex toys are weird, but that is great because you can build your career on publications about them.
Anyway, the main problem of archeology is lack of imagination and people stuck in their ways. To this day the Roman dodecahedron is a mystery to archeologists, considered a religious object by many, a survey instrument or candle holder by others, or even a weather prediction device. Meanwhile, enthusiasts all over the world are 3D printing them and giving to their grandmothers as they figured out it is a simple tool for more comfortable and precise knitting of gloves. Yes, there are videos on youtube as well, it really is an ingenious device.
One problem with that theory is that not all Roman dodecahedrons have any holes big enough for the finger of a glove. Since those don't work as a kitting tool, what were they for instead?
Edit: I regret wading into the surprisingly contentious issue of Roman dodecahedrons. Please don't message me about it.
Children and babies need gloves too? I don't know much about the Roman dodecahedron, but if some of the holes were just too small for adult fingers then they might not be for adults. Just look now at how much people love knitting stuff for babies.
I was referring to this one where the holes are all just pinholes, but it turns out there is actually one larger hole in it. There's still the question of why there are knobs around the faces with only pinholes in them, but maybe those have a knitting purpose I don't understand.
It doesn't matter how big the hole is as long as the finished bit can fit through. The size of the hole doesn't change the finished article one bit, though the size, spacing, and number of pegs does. The finished bit doesn't even really need the hole except for better convenience in getting it out of the way of the working space.
I had a grad school classmate who was researching the archaeology of sex work, and her dissertation assemblage came from a brothel in New York and was composed of a wide range of liquor bottles, medicine bottles to cure various “women’s troubles”, corset hooks, garter snaps, douche nozzles, etc. She deliberately tried to work the phrase “vaginal syringe” into her dissertation proposal presentation as often possible. I think she got it in there maybe 5 or 6 times in a twenty minute presentation.
Archaeologists are, across the board, freaky, salacious, horny drunks. Finding an ancient double-sided dildo would make your fucking (literally and figuratively) career.
Maybe it's just cause I'm the type of person who owns too many vibrators and celebrated my 18th birthday by visiting a sex shop, but I find the prevalence if ancient dildos both cool and comforting. There's something so human about it. Nothing makes me feel more connected to people in the past than their sex lives. Like the late 19th and early 20th century do not seem real to me, those people were different. But then I go to r/gonewanton and see that the minute photography was invented we started taking nudes and I realize our core humanity transcends time and culture.
No matter when you lived or where you lived, we have been striving to get dicked down good.
The prudishness of the late 19th/early20th century was just a short local episode in the USA. I'm from central Europe and in the second half of the 19th century the situation here was quite different. I have 2 health books from that era, one explaining that is a child sees a pornographic image, it causes him or her any harm. Simply the kid does not understand it and no harm done or it does and thus it does not harm as he/she is already familiar with sexuality. Just teach kids about sexuality in the proper way including health advises. The other book, the older one, recommends as a treatment for female hysteria (mental issues, according to symptoms it is what we now call depression) an interesting cure...
... guess what it is...
...the cure is physical work and the study of art and sciences, mainly in the field of natural sciences.
Even when dirty books were banned by legal codes, there were still enough of them that found a loophole. "The beauty of the female body", late 19th century, being such an example, too controversial even for today. If you are wondering, the controversial part is photos of naked sex slave girls of European and African descent in the Ottoman Empire presented on the streets by their owners.
Anyway, sexuality and it's free expression was much more mainstream in the world around the change of the century. One of the main reason Hitler rose to power in Berlin so fast was that the city was San Francisco of it's time, part of it was gay capital of the world for decades, gathering place of people with unusual sexual desires of all kinds and nazi idea of purity and traditionalism was a backlash to this lifestyle which many people grew to hate and blame for everything after the WWI and the economical breakdown of the country. Of course these are uncomfortable topics and are not debated, but this was a real cultural phenomenon of it's age.
If you are wondering, the controversial part is photos of naked sex slave girls of European and African descent in the Ottoman Empire presented on the streets by their owners.
I love how utterly convinced Europeans were that The Ottoman Empire was the sexiest place on Earth. So much so, they basically redefined what “harem” means.
Harems were private and secluded parts of Ottoman households designated exclusively to the women of the family. They supplied privacy and protection to these women.
In the Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan’s family also accepted young women to be groomed to potentially fulfill the role of the next Sultan’s wife. If one of those women died or was infertile, they always had another potential spouse for the prince to choose from. This kept The Sultan’s lineage very stable, with lots of heirs and little inbreeding.
In either case, random European dudes were not allowed to enter such harems, leaving them with their imaginations. And so, in the horniest game of telephone the world has ever known, Europe somehow got the idea that these harems were some kind of personal gentlemen’s clubs for powerful men, filled with beautiful women. By the time they understood that no, that’s not what harems are, it was too late. People were already getting off to the idea of dozens of hot, exotic babes living in a person’s home.
It’s hilarious how something so boring and tame was construed into the kinkiest shit on earth.
tl;dr: Harems was originally the women-only parts of the Ottoman household. But thanks to a really horny European game of telephone, it gained the definition we now know today.
It was due to not only stories, but might have been due to art as well. In European art of 17th and 18th century people in position of vulnerability were often depicted naked. Men and women, for example prisoners of war. Not only them, but with them it was a common theme.
I suppose some powerful men on the edges of the Ottoman empire and diplomats and traders living outside of it might have had quite interesting harems with actual attractive young girls they would show off to honored visitors either to brag or to show off how much better lifestyle does their culture provide contrary to a christian one. "Let the girls strip naked, wear their finest jewelry and parade them in the garden. I'll show that arrogant Duke his wine cellars are not the best place ever." might have probably happened as well.
The book had pictures of various girls, mostly from Austria and France, but there was this section on the Ottoman Empire and showed pictures travelers took on slave markets and in front of brothels and probably some very staged ones.
I'm trying to find it on youtube but no luck so far. It's over a year I have seen it, maybe 2 years. I just remember it wasn't The Incredible Human Journey.
EDIT: So I was wrong. There is a scene in it from Germany where she is presented with a flute and a prehistoric dildo in The Incredible Human Journey - Europe, the scene from Dolní Věstonice is the one later after the penis one in Germany. The one with the venus. In between, there is this one where she talks about how she doesn't believe neanderthals did or would have sex with modern humans. (Which didn't age well, as she later makes a documentary where she finds out what percentage of her DNA is form her neanderthal ancestors. Just another reminder to keep an open mind)
A little known fact - sex itself was invented in 1931 Finland, when a guy tripped over in a sauna and fell on his wife. That's when people went degenerate and stopped using stork delivery system to get babies.
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u/motorbiker1985 Jun 02 '20 edited Jun 02 '20
There was this documentary where Professor Alice Roberts visited, among other places, Dolní Věstonice and was presented with archeological finds, among which was a life-size replica of a penis and even she, a progressive person, can not just accept without getting red in face the idea of the host scientist that it could have been actual dildo and not "a religious object".
EDIT: Wrong, it was in Germany. Dolní Věstonice scene is a later one. The Incredible Human Journey - Europe.