Ancient Sex Pots!
The photo isn’t a sex pot, since those pics are NSFW! Today I’m sharing what I learned about the erotic ancient pottery of Peru, while writing the archaeology aspects of Submerged Hopes.
Submerged Hopes features a Deaf Greek archaeologist and a Navy diver. Part of their discussion involves sex pots, which are unique drinking vessels from the Moche culture of ancient Peru, which flourished from A.D. 100 to A.D. 800. They are so named because they depict an astonishing variety of highly detailed sexual acts, definitely NSFW, so the teapot above is a placeholder (see the link below).
These are also called “stirrup pots” because of the shape of the handle, and held water or the corn beer called chicha. Subjects were most often human, though sometimes skeletons or animals are depicted. They were so shocking to those who unearthed them that many of the pots were smashed as “obscene,” and those which survived were assumed to be simply pottery porn or erotica.
The pots were found in tombs, and the presence of certain, ahem, soft tissue parts (!!) on skeletons has led to the more recent idea that the pots were not meant to titillate, but to serve as a link to ancestors and invoke the powers of fertility and continuity.
Here’s a link to the one featured in the story (NSFW or for those below 18): https://sudamerikat.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/katherines-lima-photos-1-1-and-1-2-2015-040.jpg
If you want to see more, Google “Moche sex pot,” but you won’t be able to unsee them!
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