Random Facts About Prehistoric Sex That Show The Ways We Have - And Haven't - Evolved (8 items)

(#3) Prehistoric Statues May Have Been Caveman "Entertainment"

Historians debate about whether the so-called “Venus statuettes” carved by prehistoric man were meant as "adult entertainment" or were used for spiritual purposes. The former contingent – represented by historian Rudolf Feustel – think the busty statues were an expression of “raw animal lust.”

Team Spirituality, including Jill Cook of the British Museum in London, believes the objects had nothing to do with lust but were instead used as fertility idols for a culture that worshiped pregnancy. Cook says men in the Gravettian culture of 30,000 years ago, for example, "did not comprehend [its] biological function" and thus thought pregnancy was a miraculous act to be revered. Some of the statuettes even feature exposed genitalia and bulging bellies.
(#5) Homo Sapiens Totally Did It With Neanderthals

Modern humans - AKA homo sapiens - totally bumped uglies with Neanderthals (as well as other subspecies) in prehistoric times. Nature reported in 2011 that “an analysis comparing the Neanderthal genome sequence to that of modern H. sapiens showed that some interbreeding did take place between the two species in Europe sometime between 80,000 and 30,000 years ago.” This means “to a certain extent, Neanderthals 'live on' in the genes of modern humans.”

Human-Neanderthal hybrid babies were a thing, but they were rare: one study suggests that only female homo sapiens were capable of producing fertile offspring after mating with male Neanderthals and not the other way around.
(#6) There Was A Significant Amount Of Inbreeding

In 2013, findings published in PLOS ONE revealed that our prehistoric ancestors likely engaged in “high levels of inbreeding,” which was “inevitable” due to the isolated nature of early cavemen clans. Researchers discovered that a specific, fractured 100,000-year-old Homo sapiens skull – when joined together using CT scanning and 3D modeling – had an “unusual genetic mutation” that was probably caused by generations of inbreeding. The mutation caused a hole in the crown of the skull, a defect known as “an enlarged parietal foramen.”

The owner of this particular skull, despite the mutation, likely lived into their 30s.
(#2) Prehistoric People Probably Engaged In Bestiality

Anthony L. Podberscek and Andrea M Beetz’s Bestiality and Zoophilia: Sexual Relations with Animals cites about a half-dozen studies chronicling examples in prehistoric art, including one from 1968 that concludes there’s “no doubt that our prehistoric ancestors enjoyed frequent and pleasurable... relations with animals.”

A 25,000-year-old “engraved bone rod” found in a cave in France, for example, depicts “a lioness licking the opening of..." human genitalia. An Iron Age cave painting in Italy “portrays a man inserting his [member] into... a donkey.” Experts believe that some of these explicit drawings even had a key connection to some prehistoric clans' familial lineage.
(#8) Primitive "Birth Control" Was Brutal But Necessary

Despite engaging in an instinctively promiscuous life, prehistoric people still needed ways of restricting fertility. Historian Svend Hansen explains that “in a society of hunters and gatherers, high birth rates were unwelcome.”

Why? Weren’t they all just hanging out in the cave, eating berries, and sometimes "doing the deed?" Not at all. Hansen says that traveling through the countryside in groups of 15 to 30 was common, and each new baby meant extra weight and another mouth to feed.

How did they keep from multiplying like rabbits? Groups used plant-based methods to prevent births, social taboos, and sometimes resorted to abortions and infanticide. These primitive and often brutal practices kept population levels stable for centuries.
(#4) Cavemen Carved Dual-Purpose "Toys"

Even as far back as 30,000 years ago, people were making "toys for adults." Yes, we can’t say for sure that these lovingly-carved phallic objects – which were polished smooth and “notched” to resemble the look and textture – were used for pleasuring oneself, but as archaeologist Timothy Taylor says, considering the “size, shape, and – in some cases – explicit symbolism of the Ice Age batons, it seems disingenuous to avoid the most obvious and straightforward interpretation.”

The phallus pictured above was discovered in the Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany and dates back 29,000 years. Unlike most modern ones, it was multi-functional, since the wear indicates it may have also been used as a crude hammer.