42,000-year-old pendant unearthed in Mongolia may be the oldest phallic art ever discovered by archaeologists

A Paleolithic-era artifact discovered in Mongolia in 2016 may be the first example of phallic art to be discovered. The pendant was probably tied with a string around the wearer’s neck. It was found at the archaeological site known as Tolbor in the mountains of northern Khangai, which dates back around 42,000 years.

The artifact is not quite two inches long and is made of graphite. Since this material was not widely available in the region, the archaeologists who found it suggest that it may have come from very far away. The pendant is quite worn, suggesting it may have been passed down from generation to generation.

“Three-dimensional phallic pendants are unknown in Paleolithic records, and this find predates the earliest known anthropomorphic gendered representation,” say the authors of a paper on the find published in Nature Science Reports this month.

“Our argument is that when you want to represent something abstractly, you choose very specific features that really characterize what you want to represent,” said University of Bordeaux archaeologist Solange Rigaud, lead author of the article. Science magazine. Seen through this lens, the clearest evidence for the artifact representing a penis is the distinction between the glans and the shaft and the representation of the opening of the urethra.

Not all experts are convinced. Boston University archaeologist Curtis Runnels said Science he “would need to be convinced” that this “rather shapeless little object” was intended to symbolize a penis.

But University of Bordeaux anthropologist Francesco D’Errico, who was not involved in the research, supports the authors’ interpretation, saying Science“I think the interpretation holds.”

Other famous depictions of human sex organs, showing the vulva, are found in cave art at the Grotte Chauvet in France, but these only date to around 32,000 years ago, according to Science magazine. The Venus of Hohe Fels, on the other hand, represents the genitalia of the female figurine and is around 40,000 years old. Thus, the newly discovered pendant is perhaps the oldest such art of two millennia.

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