Archaeologists discover one of the largest phallus statues in ancient Rome | culture

Phallic representations and amulets were common in ancient romeThey were considered symbols of good luck and favorable omens. Pagan religions associated them with natural fertility, and the phallic symbols represented the fertility god Fascinus, who protects the “evil eye”. These rods were common in homes and military camps at the time, but the newly discovered penis size was not popular at all. The phallus with a relief over 18 inches (0.5 m) in length was found in El Higuerón (Municipality of Nueva Cartia, Córdoba, southern Spain), carved into the cornerstone of a large building currently being excavated. Project Director Andres Roldán (University of Extremadura and Director of the Historical Museum of Nueva Cartia) said: “It was common to put them on the facades of houses, and soldiers carried small phallic amulets as symbols of masculinity. But this is unusually large. We are currently looking into whether it has previously been found. on one of the same dimensions.

But despite the startling find, the most important aspect of the archaeological excavation is the building on which the great penis was carved. Professor Andrés María Adroher Auroux leads a group of archaeologists from the University of Granada (Spain) who are part of a larger team of experts from the Historical Museum of Nueva Cartia and the Archaeological Research Center of Southeast Spain (Centro de Estudios de Arqueología Bastana). Their job is to explore and study this ancient roman buildingIt was built over an older Iberian settlement. Its sturdy, terraced walls once supported a tower-shaped edifice whose function is still unknown.

Initial excavations carried out in this area of ​​rolling hills and olive groves during the mid-1960s discovered the first walled Iberian settlement dating back to the 5th century BC. but the roman A later invasion destroyed the present settlement, and the 65 x 55 ft (20 x 17 m) tower-shaped building was erected on its ruins.

Andrés Roldan describes the scene. They flattened the settlement and used the ancient Iberian fortifications as a basis [for the new buildings]. The various Iberian edifices in the area, such as those at Nueva Cartia, are built on strategic topographical points and indicate a more complex history than one would expect from these archaeological sites.”

Most of the buildings excavated in the area are described in A 1970 paper on local fortified areas by Javier Forte and Juan Bernier This suggests a possible connection between these structures and the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who marched his army across southern Iberia at the end of the 3rd century BC. However, recent research indicates that their ancestry is clearly Roman.

The team of archaeologists refers to the building at El Higuerón as a “monumental Roman building” with perimeter walls six feet (1.8 m) thick made of large limestone blocks. Underground stores of agricultural products were discovered, along with various building materials such as fragments of plaster and Roman concrete (opus caementicium), black and white blocks, tiles and storage containers with lids. This year, archaeologists focus on excavating an access point through one of the tower’s facades, as well as cleaning the surrounding wall, “…which is one of the site’s most monumental features,” according to Roldan.

The building was abandoned by the Romans during the Flavian dynasty in the first century, and later renovated by the Moors during their Iberian rule. The Moors removed parts of the structure that were not useful, such as underground storages, and reinforced weak areas such as the access door. When the Moors were expelled by Christians in the 13th century, the building was abandoned and forgotten until it was rediscovered in the 1960s.

The municipality of Nueva Cartia has now purchased the land on which the Ibero-Roman structure is located. She intends to sponsor more research and wants to set up a museum on the site to display the archaeological collection, including the phallus of which little is known, other than its extraordinary proportions.