PAUL SIEVEKING on dodgy Roman dice, an outsized phallus, and an unconventional thinker honoured
RECORD PHALLUS CARVING
Phallic representations and amulets were common in ancient Rome, as they were considered to be good luck symbols and heralds of favourable omens. Pagan religions associated them with natural fecundity, and the phallic symbols represented the fertility god Fascinus, warding off the “evil eye”. Soldiers carried small phallic amulets as symbols of virility. Phalluses were common in homes and military camps, but the size of one recently discovered was not at all common. Over 18in (46cm) long, the basrelief phallus was found in El Higuerón (municipality of Nueva Carteya, Cordoba, southern Spain), carved on a cornerstone of a large building. This was built over an even older Iberian settlement, dating from the 5th century BC. Its sturdy, terraced walls 6ft (1.8m) thick, made of large limestone blocks, once supported a tower-shaped edifice, 65x55ft (20x17m), with a still unknown function.
Underground storerooms for agricultural products have been discovered, along with various construction), black and white blocks, tiles and storage containers with lids. The building was abandoned by the Romans during the first century Flavian dynasty, and later renovated by the Moors during their Iberian reign. When the Christians drove out the Moors in the 13th century, the building was abandoned and forgotten until rediscovered in the 1960s.
