Phalli and Defecation – How I Ended up as Co-author of an International Article

The first peer-reviewed article in which I am a co-author has just been published (available here). How I ended up as one of the authors of this international article was totally unexpected. It was all the more surprising since I had not published anything in English before this and I did not know the other authors of the article. So let me tell you how it all happened.

The phallic stone found at Vindolanda 19 May 2022.
Photo: vindolanda.com

In May 2022, during archaeological excavations at the Roman military camp of Vindolanda located along Hadrian's Wall in Northern England, a curious stone was discovered. It had a large phallus carved into it along with the Latin inscription SECVNDINVS CACOR. Numerous phalli carved into stones have been found at Vindolanda but none of the other phalluses are accompanied by such inscriptions. This fact along with the unusual Latin word cacor make this latest phallus stone from Vindolanda exceptional. The word cacor is clearly related to the Latin verb cacare which refers to shitting, but this form is not attested in any other ancient sources.

My tweet on 26 May 2022.

About a week later the discovery was reported online, and I happened to read the news on social media (available here). I immediately began pondering the engraved text and its possible meanings in relation to the large phallus. The interpretation mentioned in the press release, "Secundinus, the shitter", didn't seem wholly satisfactory to me, or at least not the only possible one, so I decided to share my own interpretations on Twitter. I considered the significance of the word cacor and its connection to defecation in light of other ancient sources.

One of the comments on Twitter.

My tweets were commented on by the user LatinNowERC who was part of the research team that reported the discovery. At the time I didn't know any of these researchers. It seems that my interpretations were in line with those of the Vindolanda team, and LatinNowERC asked if they could contact me via email. Later that same day I received a message from Alex Mullen, assistant professor at the University of Nottingham (now full professor) and the principal investigator of the Latin Now ERC project. She was planning an article about the Secundinus stone and asked if I would be interested in contributing to the article as co-author. Of course I was interested when asked by such an accomplished scholar, and to write about phalli and defecation no less!

I didn't hear back from Alex during the summer, but then I suddenly met her at an epigraphy conference in Bordeaux in August, and we discussed the article idea further. Apart from this conference, the work on the article was done entirely via email and shared files. Professor Alexander Meyer from the University of Western Ontario I have not met in person so far but I hope I will. We worked well together and the article took shape quickly. My part in the article primarily involved the cultural context and the various interpretations of the Secundinus stone.

At the conference in Bordeaux. I would've liked to have a photo
with Alex here but it seems we never took one together.

The article was mostly done by December 2022. We submitted it to the journal Britannia in January 2023, and made the necessary revisions during the spring. The article was accepted for publication in June, and it was published electronically in Britannia on 6 September 2023. Alexander and Alex also wrote a post in one of Vindolanda's blogs based on our article.

Collaborating with international researchers was a great and enlightening experience, particularly because I haven't published articles before this since my PhD dissertation will be a monograph. I got to see how an article evolves from an idea to publication and how the publishing process works. My more experienced colleagues were encouraging and I felt that my expertise in ancient phalli and scatology had a concrete impact on this publication. It was also great to see how these topics connect researchers from different parts of the world.

Thank you Alex and Alex for this opportunity!

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Conference Trip: Prejudices, Phalli and Fun

I attended a conference on classical studies in Cambridge in April together with four other Finnish scholars. Last summer we took part in a cultural history conference in Verona, and we wanted to continue our collaboration. Soon after the conference in Verona we saw the call for papers for the conference in Cambridge. We invited a couple more scholars to apply with us and drew up a proposal of two panels on otherness and prejudice in antiquity. Our panels were accepted and we received travel grants that enabled us to travel to the conference on 21st to 23rd April 2023. First and foremost we want to thank the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland for giving each of us a TelepART grant. The conference programme can be seen here. All photos are my own unless noted otherwise.

Can you find the Finnish delegates?
(photo: Zoe Audra)

The conference was organized by the Classical Association, which has supported teaching of and research within classical studies for over 120 years, together with the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge. An estimated 500 scholars and teachers attended the conference. Academic papers were offered in multiple parallel sessions so you had to choose the most interesting ones. The most memorable presentation for me was the first one I listened to at the beginning of the conference on the Cambridge Greek Lexicon. The topic didn't sound very exciting but professor emeritus James Diggle recounted the history and the editorial process of the lexicon so vividly and entertainingly that I enjoyed the talk immensely. This was a good example of how any topic can be turned into an interesting talk when presented the right way.

Professor emeritus James Diggle giving a talk on the
Cambridge Greek Lexicon.

We had our first panel session (me, Jasmin and Maria) right away on Friday afternoon. We presented papers on stereotypes between the Romans and other peoples. I gave a paper on how Martial's satirical poems reflect Roman prejudices about the Greeks (Powerpoint slides here). Our papers were well received and led to a lively discussion. After our successful panel we got to enjoy the rest of the conference as participants. Juha, Saara and the British member of our panel Eddie had their turn on Saturday morning. Their panel examined the topic of otherness in the Greek world expertly from various points-of-view.

Our panel: Maria Jokela, Jasmin Lukkari and me.
(photo: Cédric Scheidegger Lämmle)

Presenting Martial and Roman prejudices against the Greeks.
(photo: Juha Isotalo)

The panel of Juha Isotalo, Saara Kauppinen and Eddie Jones.

In addition to the daily talks and sessions we had the opportunity to visit the archaeological museum of the Faculty of Classics and the Fitzwilliam Museum, where an evening reception was held in honor of the 120th anniversary of the Classical Association. During the conference I met many scholars and a few of them had very similar research interests which might lead to some kind of collaboration in the future. I also met many old acquaintances whom I had met in previous conferences and when I lived at the Finnish Institute in Rome. I'm gradually starting to feel like a part of the international research community.

The archaeological museum of the Faculty of Classics.
The collection consists of all kinds of plaster copies.

Fitzwilliam Museum

We had a chance to explore the collections of the museum during the reception.

I'd never been to Cambridge before so I spent some time getting to know the city. Those famous neogothic college buildings were everywhere. I visited King's College whose chapel is more like a gothic cathedral, at least to the eyes of tourist from Finland (where we don't have any gothic churches). There were many great book stores but, unfortunately, I couldn't fit that many volumes in my luggage. I regret not buying a 19th century edition of Martial's poems that I saw in one antiquarian book shop. It wouldn't have been very useful in my research but it would have made a fine addition to my collection of Martial-related books.

King's College

King's College Chapel

River Cam

After the weekend in Cambridge we traveled to London where we stayed for two days after the conference. We spent most of Monday exploring the British Museum. I've visited the museum a couple of times before but there still much to see, especially items that I hadn't paid attention to on my previous visits that pertain to my PhD research. I'd made a list beforehand of the collections and went around looking for some specific items. I was particularly interested in portrayals of men and women, foreign peoples, and professions such as actors, gladiators and physicians. Visual presentations of these groups are often found in sculptures, paintings and small decorative items. I also wanted to study items related to gender and sexuality such as phalli and portrayals of the god Priapus. Here are some examples from the collections:

An overly realistic portrayal of an old woman.

Lamp with a depiction of a woman sitting on phallus while standing on a crocodile.
According to the museum this may be a caricature of Cleopatra VII.
(photo: British Museum Collections)

Lamp with a satirical depiction of surgical operation.
The physician is holding the patient's penis on an anvil
with a pair of forceps. A hammer is waiting on the floor.
(photo: British Museum Collections)

The so called Warren Cup; a silver drinking cup
with depictions of male-to-male erotic scenes.

Playful satyrs.

Golden finger rings with phalli. Judging by the small size
of the rings these were most likely worn by children,
probably as a protection against the evil eye.

A bronze wind chime in the form of the god Priapus.

We even had time for some entertainment during our stay in London. On Monday evening I got to see the musical Hamilton. I was a bit sceptical about the combination of historical drama and rap music, but I have to say I liked the musical very much. On Tuesday morning we had some time to walk around the sunny Kensington Gardens before we left for the airport. In the evening we flew back to Finland.

Hamilton Musical

Juha and the Kensington cherry blossoms

A toast to a successful conference!

This group of scholars has become important to me in many ways, not the least because we always have so much fun together. Our shared research interests academic ambitions connect us to each other too. Already on our way to Heathrow airport we started to talk about which conference we should attend next. Or should we perhaps organize a seminar or a workshop of our own where we could continue discussing our research topics?

The Finnish delegates at the conference:
me, Jasmin Lukkari, Juha Isotalo, Maria Jokela and Saara Kauppinen.

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