Scientists believe they have found the world's oldest sex toy after piecing together more than a dozen fragments to recreate a 30,000-year-old stone age phallus.
A spokesman for the University of Tubingen, where the prehistoric tool is being studied, added that when it was not being used as a sex aid, it was used to light fires.
The eight-inch stone phallus has marks where it was clearly used for striking against flints - and scientists say the size and shape and polished appearance leave little doubt as to its other use.
The find, which has been dated to be at least 28,000 years old and found in a cave near Ulm in Germany, was made from siltstone and was apparently discarded after being broken.
As well as the distinctive form, it also has carved rings around one polished end leaving little doubt as to its nature.
The different parts were found in a cave complex associated with the activities of modern humans and not their pre-historic "cousins", the Neanderthals.
The sex toy is particularly rare because examples of masculinity from the time are rare although female inspired art with exaggerated sexual characteristics such as large breasts are relatively common.
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