Archaeologists are debating what ancient Romans might have been doing with 16 centimetres of hard wood shaped like a phallus and rounded at the tip.

The 2,000-year-old object, discovered in 1992 at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in Northumberland, England, was initially classified as a tool for darning. 

But archaeologist Rob Collins — an expert in phallic objects — suspects it may have been a tool for something else entirely.

"It's a curious object, and we can't be absolutely certain, but my co-author and I have three suggestions," Collins, a senior lecturer at the U.K.'s Newcastle University, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

"We think it could be part of a larger object, like a statue or a figurine or maybe from a building. The second possible function is that it is a pestle from a mortar and pestle set to grind up food or medicines or cosmetics. And the third possible object is that it's a sexual object, a sex implement."

So — a dildo?

"A dildo, yeah," Collins said.

Collins and his colleague, Rob Sands of the University College Dublin, explored their theories about the object in a discussion paper published in the journal Antiquity.

The 'magical properties' of penises

Kelly Olson, a professor of classics at Ontario's Western University who specializes in Roman culture and sexuality, says she's never seen an ancient Greek or Roman dildo, but their existence is evident in their art and literature.

She recalled a comedy from Hellenistic Greece that features two women discussing one of their new sex toys, crafted for her by a shoemaker.

"This one they discuss is leather and it's scarlet and it's soft, yet stiff. And the women are just, like, in awe," Olson said. "We don't have any literary mention of wooden phalluses as sex toys, but, you know, I think it's absolutely possible."