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ABSTRACT
The characteristics, spatial distribution, and date of five phallic ceramic vessels excavated at the late medieval fishing settlement of Walraversijde are discussed. This is followed by an overview of similar finds known from Poland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The information from both, enhanced with insights from the literature, leads to the hypothesis that the Walraversijde vessels were used during an exceptional festivity, probably linked to the blessing of a ship in 15th-century Walraversijde, and the phallus thus was considered as an apotropaion by mariners in late medieval Flanders.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers and Dr Charles Kightly and Glenn Gevaert for their valuable comments on the first version of this article. Special thanks also to Jan Huyghe (Raakvlak Brugge) for his relentless efforts to make the phallic vessel from Heist available for this study. Special thanks also to Alexis Wielemans (Flanders Heritage Agency) for suggesting interesting papers and tracking down less accessible papers and to Dr Hugh Wilmott for providing me with his unpublished manuscript on phallic jugs.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).