What was the actual use of this six-inch 'stone penis' in medieval Spain?

Archaeologists unearthed a six-inch 'stone penis' on May 19 when they were excavating an archaeological site in the Ría de Vigo estuary of northwestern Spain. The artefact appears to be some kind of tool.

Reports have mentioned that the object was found byarchaeologists working with Arbore Arqueoloxía, which is an archaeology cooperative.

It was discovered at Torre de Meira (Tower of Meira), which is a site of a medieval fortress in the municipality of Moaña. The site is atop a hill overlooking the Ría de Vigo.

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Revolts against Spanish nobility raged in the Ría de Vigo at the end of the 15th century, which resulted in the destruction of most castles, including the Tower of Meira, which was demolished in 1476.

Now, archaeologists are working to find the ruins of the tower more than 500 years later. Some of the findings were stunning discoveries, including the stone penis. There can be differences of opinion, but the researchers believe that the tool was likely used to sharpen weapons.

(Image: The phallic stone discovered in Torre de Meira. Credit: Árbore Arqueoloxia S. Coop.Galega)

Darío Peña-Pascual, an archaeologist with Arbore Arqueoloxía, told Live Science in an email, "It is an interesting object because it is unusual and because it materialises the symbolic association between violence, weapons and masculinity, an association that we know existed in the Middle Ages and that is present in our culture today."

Such sharpening stones are easy to identify "as they still hold traces and marks of the materials they sharpened," Peña-Pascual said further, adding that in this case, "the object retains traces of wear on one side compatible with its use as a sharpening stone".

Such tools are quite common in prehistoric, Roman or Celtic sites, but it is less common to find them in medieval Europe, which has a surprising factor for the team of archaeologists. The researchers have wondered about the exact meaning of such tools.

The archaeologist said that this object "materialises the symbolic association between violence, weapons and masculinity. An association that we know existed in the Middle Ages and that is also present in our culture today".

2,000-year-old Roman 'sex toy'

Earlier this year in February, it was found that experts were previously wrong when they mistook an ancient object for a textile tool, which apparently was something else. They believed that the object found at a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall was used for sewing, but now new theories have emergedsuggesting that the object may have been a second-century sex toy.

According to the study published in the journal Antiquity, researchers unearthed the object in 1992 in a ditch at the Roman Fort of Vindolanda, near Hadrian’s Wall. The region was once marked the Roman Empire’s northwest frontier, in northern England. Click here to read the full story.

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