The surprising artifact could be evidence of fertility rituals—or just one of history’s strangest good luck charms.

A bio-archaeologist with the University of Reading, in the U.K., has found an ancient dog's red-painted penis bone along with a trove of other bones, in an ancient Roman era quarry shaft.

considering some of the dogs were male, but one of the baculum was different. The bone was the only one stained red, suggesting it had been manipulated or used separately from the other bones ...

But one, in particular, stood out: a dog's baculum (penis bone) that had been painted red on one side. "This is the only example I could find of an actual penis having potentially been used as a ...