Thanks to technology, the spread of online marketplaces, research into safe materials, and progressive views, sex toys are more popular than ever before. Virtually every city in the United States features and adult toys store, although those without nearby sex toys shops can visit a number of online marketplaces to find Joujou Sex Toys online that fit their needs.

The earliest kind of sex toys predates agriculture, being made around the same time many other stone tools were forged for the first time. Archaeologists found what’s thought of as the world’s first dildo — albeit crude — underground in the Hohle Fels Cave nestled in the Swabian Jura. Or, for those not familiar with geography, a cave in rural Germany. The stone tool was constructed from fourteen pieces of stone, is just short of eight inches in length, and grittier at one end than the other. Dated at around 28,000 years of age, this phallic, stone, male-replica member is alleged to be one of humanity’s first adult toys.

Thousands of years later, Ancient Romans created one of today’s most novel sex toys: the double-ended dildo. The Romans must have had a lot of free time on their hands, as they were also the first society on record to have used animal intestines as condoms to prevent pregnancy and mitigate the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. And, although it sounds pretty rough, they also used leather as condoms.

Fast forward a few hundred years, and Japanese men created what’s today known as Ben Wa balls. These sex toys are used in a few different ways. Some women choose to leave them in their vaginal canal throughout the day, experiencing stimulation when sitting in rocking chairs, bouncing down steps of stairs, or other bouncy activities. Others pop them in and out of their vagina, tensing up on them throughout, by themselves or with the help of a friend. Ben Wa balls date back about 1,500 years, estimated to have been invented around 500 AD. These toys were actually designed to increase the amount of pleasure men had during sex, although women quickly adapted them for their modern use, using them for their own pleasure. Sneaky ladies!

More recent sex toy developments came in the 19th century. Around 1869, doctors were trying to find something to cure, or at least mitigate hysteria. Hysteria is no longer recognized by doctors as a legitimate condition, although its symptoms included anxiety, heightened sexual desire, inability to sleep, and shortness of breath, among others. Some doctors thought that a lack of sexual activity in women may have been to blame. Either way, a steam-powered vibrator was developed for enhanced female stimulation in the name of hysteria. This treatment didn’t really work, although vibrators caught on later in the 1920s when Hamilton Beach manufactured the first commercially-available vibrator.

As views became more progressive over time, so did the number of sex toys available. They are readily available, relatively affordable, and bought in brick-and-mortar stores and online sex toy marketplaces around the Internet.