A set of objects of portable art (art mobilier), belonging to the Upper Paleolithic, and reproducing the male sexual organ. These artifacts come from different French and Spanish localities (El Pendo, Gorges d’Enfer, La Madeleine, Abri Blanchard, Castanet) and testify the central role accorded by prehistoric peoples to the generative energy, regarded as expression of a wider vital force pervading all living forms. The object in the centre, showing a double phallic symbol, belongs to the typology of objects called “headman sticks” or “pierced sticks” (bâtons percés), the precise function of which is unknown. It is likely, however, that they had an important symbolic value and were employed for ceremonial and ritual purposes (Leroi-Gourhan 1964: p. 131).

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