Washington, Nov 13 (ANI): A new study of Paleolithic art has suggested that men in prehistoric Europe scarred, pierced and tattooed their penises, likely for ritualistic and social group reasons.
The practice appears to have been most common in France and Spain around 12,000 years ago.
The meaning of the symbols remains a mystery, but many match images found on cave art from the same period.
The analysis of phallic decorations in Paleolithic art described in the December issue of The Journal of Urology may also show evidence of the world's first known surgery performed on a male genital organ.
The researchers suggested that the alteration, or surgery, might have just been for ornamental purposes, or a piercing.
Lead author Javier Angulo, chair of the Department of Urology at Hospital Universitario de Getafe in Spain, explained that, like today, tattooing and manipulation of body parts have always functioned as a way for people to express themselves.
Angulo and colleagues Marcos Garc¡a-D¡ez and Marc Mart¡nez studied male genital representations in portable, mostly handheld sizes of art made in Europe approximately 38,000 to 11,000 years ago.
The pieces, researchers said, frequently mirrored what actually appeared on the male penis. Paleolithic art is known to be very naturalistic, so the artists were recreating what they saw.
Additionally Angulo said, "Otzi and some mummies confirm tattoos were on their skin."
"Modern primitives did modify their bodies, including their genitals, with the use of tattooing, perforations and cuttings (scars) to change their appearance," Discovery News quoted Angulo as saying.
They therefore believe it is "highly probable that the marks left on these phalli are not decorative for the sake of the piece of art but rather a depiction of real-life details."
Many of the marks are geometric shapes, such as triangles or circles. Some designs appear to match those of figures seen within Paleolithic cave art from the same regions.
This suggests that the symbols may have held important meanings for people then. (ANI)
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