Since this ancient object was first discovered thirty years ago, archaeologists have thought it to be a darning tool to sew up holes in fabric. Now though, archaeologists suspect that it's a 2,000-year-old Roman dildo. The 16 cm phallus was dug up at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in Northumberland, England.
"I have to confess—part of me thinks it's kind of self-evident that it is a penis," Newcastle University archaeologist Rob Collins told The Guardian. "I don't know who entered it into the catalogue. Maybe it was somebody uncomfortable with it or didn't think the Romans would do such silly things."
"Sometimes they [dildos] weren't always used for pleasure … they can be implements of torture so I'm very conscious of using the term sex toy. Hopefully that is what it was used for. That is the most exciting and intriguing possibility.
"If that is the case it would be, to our knowledge, the first Roman dildo that's been encountered from archaeology. We know from Greek and Roman poetry and Greek and Roman art that they used dildos. But we haven't had any archaeological examples found which is intriguing in itself.
According to the researchers, it's also possible it was a pestle or part of a good luck statue. But those theories are nowhere near as fun.
