2000-1500 BCE, from southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. The precise idea behind producing these erotic scenes is unknown but there may well have been a religious purpose. Such scenes were mass-produced in southern Mesopotamia, during the old Babylonian era. It depicts a male and female having sex while the woman drinks a fluid ( beer?) from a jar through a straw. This terracotta plaque dates back to the old Babylonian period. In the middle, a man and a woman are having sex, and on the left, a standing woman holds a young child on her shoulders. This round pottery plaque depicts various human daily activities. The following images are a few select examples displaying how sex was portrayed in Mesopotamian art. Herodotus explains this particular custom was meant to ensure the fertility and continued prosperity of the community although his interpretation, and whether this practice even existed as he described it, have been challenged. Each woman had to perform this type of prostitution at least once in her life and it involved sitting outside the temple of Ishtar ( Inanna) and agreeing to have sex with the person who chose her. For example, there was the marriage market, where women were auctioned off as brides, and a particular form of sacred prostitution. While sex was a part of one’s personal life there were also a couple of, what we would consider, odd customs observed. In Mesopotamia, sex was just another aspect of life and there was no shyness, or taboo involved in it. Pan copulating with goat, one of the best known objects in the Naples Museum collection. It would be hung outside a house or shop doorway to ward off evil spirits. It was found in the bedroom (cubiculum) of the Casa del Centenario (IX 8,3) in Pompeii. This Roman fresco shows the act of making love. The following are a few select images of the artwork and artifacts found in the secret cabinet collection. A brick wall was even built over the doorway to keep the scenes from corrupting people.
It is said when King Francis I of Naples visited with his wife and daughter in 1819 he was so shocked by the contents of the collection he had them locked away.
The secret cabinet collection is now part of the Naples National Archaeological Museum. One of the most famous collections of erotic art from Roman culture is the artwork featured in the secret cabinet ( gabinetto segreto). The Secret Cabinetįor the Romans, sex was a part of their everyday lives, state affairs, religious rites, myths, even warfare, and featured prominently in their art. In ancient Rome there were artworks in living rooms or studies depicting erotic images of lovers performing various sexual acts and in ancient Mesopotamia mass-produced terracotta plagues would show couples having sex. To the causal observer, it seems the ancients were more open about their sexuality then we are today.
Ancient art and archaeological remains have provided archaeologists and historians today with clues to how the ancients practiced their sexuality and their overall attitude toward sex.
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