Roman wind chime dating back to 200AD discovered and it's a flying penis

15 November 2023 , 23:06

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The ancient Roman artefact dates back to 200AD (Image: Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade)

Experts have dug up an ancient Roman windchime - with what appears to be a cheeky magical flying penis attached to it

Archaeologists found the relic in Serbia and believe the odd item dates back to around 200AD. At the time the city of Viminacium was the provincial capital of Moesia Superio and was a major commercial herb at the Empire ’s northern frontier.

The discovered relic, known as a tintinnabulum, was a windchime which at the time was hung in doorways to homes and shops and features a “magical phallus”. It boasts two legs, wings and a tail. Romans believed the phallus gave them protection and good fortune.

The wind chime features a "magical" phallus (Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade)

A spokesman for Viminacium Archeological Park told Serbian website Sve o arheologiji: “Explorations of the civilian settlement (city) of Viminacium have just begun, and the first significant discoveries have already begun. During the excavation of one of the main city streets, the gate of one of the buildings was discovered.

It was established that the building was destroyed in a fire, during which the porch collapsed and fell to the ground, and an object known in scientific circles as a tintinnabulum was discovered in the layer of debris.” The noise generated from tintinnabulums were thought to frighten off evil spirits.

Grisly mystery of ancient Roman's brain turned into glass in Pompeii eruption

The new discovery is the second found in the area. Earlier this year new emerged which sheds light on terrifying details of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius onto the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Archaeologists found the relic in Serbia and believe the odd item dates back to around 200AD (Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade)

A grisly detail emerged which appeared to be that the brain of an Roman living in the ill-fated town of Herculaneum had been turned into glass during the cataclysm. Scientists published a detailed model of how the infamous AD79 eruption spewed out hot ash and how the excruciatingly high temperatures turned the grey matter into glass by vitrification.

Vitrification is the name given to a process where a substance is superheated and then cools very quickly, turning into glass as a result. In the case of the unfortunate resident of Herculaneum, this would have been brought about by a pyroclastic density current from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This would have been made up of a smothering cloud of ash and gas at a temperature of around 550C that would have engulfed the town, killing everyone in its path.

In the case of some particularly unfortunate people sheltering in stone bathhouses, this would have meant that the heat was not high enough to instantly vaporise them. Some academics have even suggested that the stone structure combined with archaeological evidence may have resulted in them 'baking' in the place they took shelter, or even living long enough to suffocate on the fumes.

Antony Clements-Thrower