We tend to think society is more sexualized today but perhaps it's only now that the common people are getting it on the way elites once did.

In the Eilat Mountain region around Nahal Roded in Israel, recently discovered sites look distinct from other ones nearby: They have 126 ‘regular’ standing stones along with perforated ones and anthropomorphic stone images to go with them.  The tools date back to the Neolithic period - before pottery.

So what? The people have been there a long time and Israel is littered with cool old archaeological sites, right? True, but there are some things that are unmistakable and given the exclusive nature of the site, it was clear that they were not for everyone.  They were, however, for quite a few people. But the purpose is unclear. 

Along with the usual stuff, they found objects that they say had to be sex symbols.  Did some ancient Christian Grey use it as a pre-historic red room? Was it for swinger parties? It's hard to know for sure. But the symbols are unmistakable, at least to our modern sensibilities.


JOURNAL OF THEISRAEL PREHISTORIC SOCIETYMitekufat HaevenVolume 44

Here is what they mean about the layout being a cult site.





Dr. Uzi Avner, archaeologist with The Dead-Sea and Arava Science Center, and colleagues say the gigantic stone circles and the penis-shaped installations pointing toward them represent two things:  The first is fertility - the stones with elongated perforation (vulva-shapes) and the elongated cell and the circle;


Vaginas?

The second is...death.

Kinky indeed.

Citation:  Uzi Avner, Moti Shem-Tov, Lior Enmar, Gideon Ragolski, Rachamim Shem-Tov and Omry Barzilai, A Survey of Neolithic Cult Sites in the Eilat Mountains, Israel  JOURNAL OF THE ISRAEL PREHISTORIC SOCIETY Mitekufat Haeven Volume 44