Excavators digging under City Hall for historical artifacts unearthed what may be a 200-year-old dildo. According to DNAinfo.com, archaeologists initially thought the object was a spice grinder. Then a female archaeologist, Lisa Geiger, decided the artifact must be an antique “vaginal syringe” that was used as a douche.
“Women used them for contraception, shooting solutions of astringents made from minerals or tree roots and barks into themselves before or after sex,” in addition to doing some periodic cleaning,” Geiger said.
From DNAinfo.com:
CITY HALL — An excavation at the city’s political center has unearthed a 3-inch artifact that initially baffled archaeologists — until they realized it was one of the earliest documented feminine hygiene products in New York.
“At first we thought it was maybe a spice-grinder or needle case,” said Alyssa Loorya, president of Chrysalis Archaeology, the firm that oversaw the dig, part of a Department of Design and Construction rehabilitation project at City Hall. “We were stumped.”
The early incarnation of a douche — a hollow, cylinder with small holes at its top made from unidentified mammal bone — was found in a massive heap of buried garbage that dates back to between 1803 and 1815, Loorya said.
According to DNAinfo, the archaeologists “also found a second douche, but it wasn’t completely intact.”
Thanks to loyal reader Ernest O. for the link.
