The Discovery of Sex j 2323 23
interpretation of these signs as pubic triangles or vulvas, M. R. González Morales and L. G.
Straus have recently identified the possible representation of a woman, including a pubic
triangle, engraved on a Magdalenian- age cave wall. The engraving appears to have marked
the site of a human female burial.^30
According to Angulo Cuesta and Garcia Diez, “only a few figures explicitly show clearly
masculine sexual organs in the Paleolithic art now known in Western Europe.” Some exam-
ples of ithyphallic (the Greek word ithys means “straight”) human- like figures are shown in
Figure 2.6A. In addition, phallic imagery is apparent in a few portable artifacts, as shown
in Figure 2.6B. However, in contrast to the female images, many of which date to the
Aurignacian and Gravettian periods (contemporary with the “Venus figurines”), the major-
ity of the male figures and phallic images found at Les Combarelles, Saint- Cirq, Altamira,
La Madeleine, and other Late Paleolithic sites, date to the Magdalenian period— 16,000 to
8,500 years ago.
Possible representations of human sexual activity, including copulation and childbirth,
occur later in the archaeological record.^31 The view that copulation was indeed represented
in Upper Paleolithic cave art has received support in recent years. For example, Figure 2.7A
from Les Combarelles illustrates what has been interpreted as a “pre- coital scene,” while
Figure 2.7B, from Los Casares, is thought to represent face- to- face coitus. Angulo Cuesta
and Garcia Diez have speculated that the “couple” on the left in Figure 2.7B may illustrate
the only example of penetration, although the site of the penetration is anatomically prob-
lematical. As in the case of the male images, the putative copulation depictions do not begin
until the Magdelanian period.
The next stage after copulation is pregnancy. Although plausible depictions of pregnancy
can be found among the “Venus figurines,” there are no clear examples from parietal art. In
contrast, the image found engraved on the face of a reindeer bone, showing what appears to
be a male reindeer standing in front of— and over— a supine pregnant woman, seems clear,
even if the significance of the image is obscure (Figure 2.8). This portable art object was
found at a Middle Magdalenian site in the Dordogne. The arms of the woman are raised,
suggesting that she and the male animal may be part of a mythic ritual concerned withFigure 2.6 Ithyphalic male figures (A) and phallic symbols (B).
From Angulo Cuesta, J., and M. Garcia Diez (2005), Sexo en Piedra. Sexualidad, Reproducción y Erotismo en
Época Paleolítica.