British Prehistoric Phalluses: Savage Sexuality and the Modern Archaeological Imagination. (360G-Wellcome-109045_Z_15_Z)

Objects sculpted to resemble the erect penis have been known from the very beginnings of the modern discipline of archaeology. Yet it was only after 1870 that such objects began to be identified from archaeological excavations in Britain. Known as prehistoric phalluses these discoveries became increasingly significant in debates surrounding the origins of sexuality and religion in British archaeology, anthropology and psychoanalysis throughout the twentieth century. This application will sup port the first investigation focusing primarily on the role these artefacts have played in modern history rather than in prehistory. It will fund visits to museums and archives to obtain primary knowledge of the objects and unpublished archival sources essential to producing their history. This body of information will be examined alongside literature concerning phallic worship, sexual and religious evolution and the imagined sexualities of Britain's prehistoric inhabitants in the nineteenth an d twentieth centuries. The outcomes of this study will include blog posts, conference papers, an academic journal article and book chapter. These outcomes will contribute to histories of sexuality, anthropology and archaeology, as well as enhancing collections-based knowledge available to curators of local museums participating in the project and, thereby, to their museum audiences.