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Numerous penis shaped structures and artifacts with vulva shapes has been discovered in the Eilat Mountains, an extremely arid area of the Negev Desert in Israel. It is said to be a prehistoric religious place in Israel.

Archaeologists are working to decipher the meaning from the artifacts and structures. The cult sites date around 8,000 years back. Archaeologists have discovered variety of stones structures which include circular stones that measures 1.5 to 2.5 meters across (roughly 5 to 8 feet) with penis-shaped installations pointing toward them. Other findings include stone bowls and stone craving that have a humanlike shape.

"The circle is a female symbol, and the elongated cell is a male one (phallus)," Uzi Avner, a researcher with the Arava-Dead Sea Science Center and the Arava Institute, said in an email.

"The density of cult sites in this region is phenomenal," the team wrote in an article. Archaeologists believe that these sites were used for ritual activities of some form like animal sacrifice, as bones were found there.  

Death is "signified by the burial of stone objects and by setting them upside down," the team members wrote in their paper. In one case, a humanlike stone carving was found buried "with only the very top visible on the surface."

-Smrutirekha