World's oldest erotic graffiti found on Aegean island

World's earliest erotic graffiti with racy inscriptions and phalluses carved into Astypalai's rocky peninsula has been found on Aegean island.

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Dr Andreas Vlachopoulos, a specialist in prehistoric archaeology, told the Guardian that they were what he would call triumphant inscriptions andthey claimed their own space in large letters that not only expressed sexual desire but talked about the act of sex itself, which was very rare.

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Vlachopoulos added that they know that in ancient Greece sexual desire between men was not a taboo but this graffiti was not just among the earliest ever discovered and it clearly says that these two men were making love over a long period of time, emphasising the sexual act in a way that is highly unusual in erotic artwork.

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Vlachopoulos said that two penises engraved into limestone beneath the name of Dion, and dating to the fifth century BC, were also discovered at lower heights of the cape.

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The graffiti found at the highest point of the promontory overlooking the Bay of Vathy on the island's north-western tip had not only shed light on the very personal lives of the ancients but highlighted the extent of literacy at a time when the Acropolis in Athens had yet to be built.