II.—Dispersion of the Swastika.

EXTREME ORIENT.

JAPAN.

Fig. 29. BRONZE STATUE OF BUDDHA. Japan. Eight swastikas on pedestal. Cane tintinnabulum with six movable rings or bells. One-fifteenth natural size.

The Swastika was in use in Japan in ancient as well as modern times. Fig. 29 represents a bronze statue of Buddha, one-fifteenth natural size, from Japan, in the collection of M. Cernuschi, Paris. It has eight Swastikas on the pedestal, the ends all turned at right angles to the right. This specimen is shown by De Mortillet[107] because it relates to prehistoric man. The image or statue holds a cane in the form of a “tintinnabulum,” with movable rings arranged to make a jingling noise, and De Mortillet inserted it in his volume to show the likeness of this work in Japan with a number of similar objects found in the Swiss lake dwellings in the prehistoric age of bronze (p. 806).

Fig. 30. JAPANESE POTTER’S MARK ON PORCELAIN. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” Fig. 1248.

The Swastika mark was employed by the Japanese on their porcelain. Sir Augustus W. Franks[108] shows one of these marks, a small Swastika turned to the left and inclosed in a circle (fig. 30). Fig. 9 also represents a mark on Japanese bronzes.[109]

KOREA.

The U. S. National Museum has a ladies’ sedan or carrying chair from Korea. It bears eight Swastika marks, cut by stencil in the brass-bound corners, two on each corner, one looking each way. The Swastika is normal, with arms crossing at right angles, the ends bent at right angles and to the right. It is quite plain; the lines are all straight, heavy, of equal thickness, and the angles all at 90 degrees. In appearance it resembles the Swastika in fig. 9.

CHINA.

In the Chinese language the sign of the Swastika is pronounced wan (p. 801), and stands for “many,” “a great number,” “ten thousand,” “infinity,” and by a synecdoche is construed to mean “long life, a multitude of blessings, great happiness,” etc.; as is said in French, “mille pardons,” “mille remercîments,” a thousand thanks, etc. During a visit to the Chinese legation in the city of Washington, while this paper was in progress, the author met one of the attachés, Mr. Chung, dressed in his robes of state; his outer garment was of moiré silk. The pattern woven in the fabric consisted of a large circle with certain marks therein, prominent among which were two Swastikas, one turned to the right, the other to the left. The name given to the sign was as reported above, wan, and the signification was “longevity,” “long life,” “many years.” Thus was shown that in far as well as near countries, in modern as well as ancient times, this sign stood for blessing, good wishes, and, by a slight extension, for good luck.

The author conferred with the Chinese minister, Yang Yu, with the request that he should furnish any appropriate information concerning the Swastika in China. In due course the author received the following letter and accompanying notes with drawings:

* * * I have the pleasure to submit abstracts from historical and literary works on the origin of the Swastika in China and the circumstances connected with it in Chinese ancient history. I have had this paper translated into English and illustrated by india-ink drawings. The Chinese copy is made by Mr. Ho Yen-Shing, the first secretary of the legation, translation by Mr. Chung, and drawings by Mr. Li.

With assurance of my high esteem, I am, Very cordially, Yang Yu.

Buddhist philosophers consider simple characters as half or incomplete characters and compound characters as complete characters, while the Swastika is regarded as a natural formation. A Buddhist priest of the Tang Dynasty, Tao Shih by name, in a chapter of his work entitled Fa Yuen Chu Lin, on the original Buddha, describes him as having this mark on his breast and sitting on a high lily of innumerable petals. [Pl. 1.]

Empress Wu (684-704 A. D.), of the Tang Dynasty, invented a number of new forms for characters already in existence, amongst which was the word for sun, for moon, for star, and so on. These characters were once very extensively used in ornamental writing, and even now the word sun may be found in many of the famous stone inscriptions of that age, which have been preserved to us up to the present day. [Pl. 2.]

The history of the Tang Dynasty (620-906 A. D.), by Lui Hsu and others of the Tsin Dynasty, records a decree issued by Emperor Tai Tsung (763-779 A. D.) forbidding the use of the Swastika on silk fabrics manufactured for any purpose. [Pl. 3.]

Fung Tse, of the Tang Dynasty, records a practice among the people of Loh-yang to endeavor, on the 7th of the 7th month of each year, to obtain spiders to weave the Swastika on their web. Kung Ping-Chung, of the Sung Dynasty, says that the people of Loh-yang believe it to be good luck to find the Swastika woven by spiders over fruits or melons. [Pl. 4.]

Sung Pai, of the Sung Dynasty, records an offering made to the Emperor by Li Yuen-su, a high official of the Tang Dynasty, of a buffalo with a Swastika on the forehead, in return for which offering he was given a horse by the Emperor. [Pl. 5.]

Plate 1. Origin of Buddha according to Tao Shih, with Swastika Sign. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 2. Swastika Decreed by Empress Wu (684-704 A. D.) as a Sign for Sun in China. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 3. Swastika Design on Silk Fabrics. This use of the Swastika was forbidden in China by Emperor Tai Tsung (763-779 A. D.). From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 4. Swastika in Spider Web over Fruit. (A good omen in China.) From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 5. Buffalo with Swastika on Forehead. Presented to Emperor of Sung Dynasty. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 6. Incense Burner with Swastika Decoration. South Tang Dynasty. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S National Museum Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 7. House of Wu Tsung-Chih of Sin Shui, with Swastika in Railing. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

Plate 8. Mountain or Wild Date.—Fruit Resembling the Swastika. From a drawing by Mr. Li, presented to the U. S. National Museum by Mr. Yang Yü, Chinese Minister, Washington, D. C.

The Ts’ing-I-Luh, by Tao Kuh, of the Sung Dynasty, records that an Empress in the time of the South Tang Dynasty had an incense burner the external decoration of which had the Swastika design on it. [Pl. 6.]

Chu I-Tsu, in his work entitled Ming Shih Tsung, says Wu Tsung-Chih, a learned man of Sin Shui, built a residence outside of the north gate of that town, which he named “Wan-Chai,” from the Swastika decoration of the railings about the exterior of the house. [Pl. 7.]

An anonymous work, entitled the Tung Hsi Yang K’ao, described a fruit called shan-tsao-tse (mountain or wild date), whose leaves resemble those of the plum. The seed resembles the lichee, and the fruit, which ripens in the ninth month of the year, suggests a resemblance to the Swastika. [Pl. 8.]

The Swastika is one of the symbolic marks of the Chinese porcelain. Prime[110] shows what he calls a “tablet of honor,” which represents a Swastika inclosed in a lozenge with loops at the corners (fig. 31). This mark on a piece of porcelain signifies that it is an imperial gift.

Fig. 31. POTTER’S MARK ON PORCELAIN. China. Tablet of honor, with Swastika. Prime, “Pottery and Porcelain,” p. 254.

Major-General Gordon, controller of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, England, writes to Dr. Schliemann:[111] “The Swastika is Chinese. On the breech chasing of a large gun lying outside my office, captured in the Taku fort, you will find this same sign.” But Dumoutier[112] says this sign is nothing else than the ancient Chinese character c h e, which, according to D’Alviella,[113] carries the idea of perfection or excellence, and signifies the renewal and perpetuity of life. And again,[111] “Dr. Lockyer, formerly medical missionary to China, says the sign is thoroughly Chinese.”

The Swastika is found on Chinese musical instruments. The U. S. National Museum possesses a Hu-Ch’in, a violin with four strings, the body of which is a section of bamboo about 3½ inches in diameter. The septum of the joint has been cut away so as to leave a Swastika of normal form, the four arms of which are connected with the outer walls of the bamboo. Another, a Ti-Ch’in, a two-stringed violin, with a body of cocoanut, has a carving which is believed to have been a Swastika; but the central part has been broken out, so that the actual form is undetermined.

Prof. George Frederick Wright, in an article entitled “Swastika,”[114] quotes Rev. F. H. Chalfont, missionary at Chanting, China, as saying: “Same symbol in Chinese characters ‘ouan,’ or ‘wan,’ and is a favorite ornament with the Chinese.”

TIBET.

Mr. William Woodville Rockhill,[115] speaking of the fair at Kumbum, says:

I found there a number of Lh’asa Tibetans (they call them Gopa here) selling pulo, beads of various colors, saffron, medicines, peacock feathers, incense sticks, etc. I had a talk with these traders, several of whom I had met here before in 1889. * * * One of them had a Swastika (yung-drung) tattooed on his hand, and I learned from this man that this is not an uncommon mode of ornamentation in his country.

Count D’Alviella says that the Swastika is continued among the Buddhists of Tibet; that the women ornament their petticoats with it, and that it is also placed upon the breasts of their dead.[116]

He also reports[117] a Buddhist statue at the Musée Guimet with Swastikas about the base. He does not state to what country it belongs, so the author has no means of determining if it is the same statue as is represented in fig. 29.

INDIA.

Burnouf[118] says approvingly of the Swastika:

Christian archæologists believe this was the most ancient sign of the cross. * * * It was used among the Brahmins from all antiquity. (Voyez mot “Swastika” dans notre dictionnaire sanskrit.) Swastika, or Swasta, in India corresponds to “benediction” among Christians.

Fig. 32. FOOTPRINT OF BUDDHA WITH SWASTIKA, FROM AMARAVATI TOPE. From a figure by Fergusson and Schliemann.

The same author, in his translation of the “Lotus de la Bonne Loi,” one of the nine Dharmas or Canonical books of the Buddhists of the North, of 280 pages, adds an appendix of his own writing of 583 pages; and in one (No. 8) devoted to an enumeration and description of the sixty-five figures traced on the footprint of Çakya (fig. 32) commences as follows:

1. Svastikaya: This is the familiar mystic figure of many Indian sects, represented thus, , and whose name signifies, literally, “sign of benediction or of good augury.” (Rgya tch’er rol pa, Vol. 11, p. 110.)

* * * The sign of the Swastika was not less known to the Brahmins than to the Buddhists. “Ramayana,” Vol. II, p. 348, ed. Gor., Chap. XCVII, st. 17, tells of vessels on the sea bearing this sign of fortune. This mark, of which the name and usage are certainly ancient, because it is found on the oldest Buddhist medals, may have been used as frequently among the Brahmins as among the Buddhists. Most of the inscriptions on the Buddhist caverns in western India are either preceded or followed by the holy (sacramentelle) sign of the Swastika. It appears less common on the Brahmin monuments.

Mr. W. Crooke (Bengal Civil Service, director of Eth. Survey, Northwest Provinces and Oudh), says:[119]

The mystical emblem of the Swastika, which appears to represent the sun in his journey through the heavens, is of constant occurrence. The trader paints it on the flyleaf of his ledger, he who has young children or animals liable to the evil eye makes a representation of it on the wall beside his doorpost. It holds first place among the lucky marks of the Jainas. It is drawn on the shaven heads of children on the marriage day in Gujarat. A red circle with Swastika in the center is depicted on the place where the family gods are kept (Campbell, Notes, p. 70). In the Meerut division the worshiper of the village god Bhumiya constructs a rude model of it in the shrine by fixing up two crossed straws with a daub of plaster. It often occurs in folklore. In the drama of the Toy Cart the thief hesitates whether he shall make a hole in the wall of Charudatta’s house in the form of a Swastika or of a water jar (Manning, Ancient India, 11, 100).

Village shrines.—The outside (of the shrines) is often covered with rude representations of the mystical Swastika.

On page 250 he continues thus:

Charms.—The bazar merchant writes the words “Ram Ram” over his door, or makes an image of Genesa, the god of luck, or draws the mystical Swastika. The jand tree is reverenced as sacred by Khattris and Brahmins to avoid the evil eye in children. The child is brought at 3 years of age before a jand tree; a bough is cut with a sickle and planted at the foot of the tree. A Swastika symbol is made before it with the rice flour and sugar brought as an offering to the tree. Threads of string, used by women to tie up their hair, are cut in lengths and some deposited on the Swastika.

Mr. Virchand R. Gandhi, a Hindu and Jain disciple from Bombay, India, a delegate to the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, remained for some time in Washington, D. C., proselyting among the Christians. He is a cultivated gentleman, devoted to the spread of his religion. I asked his advice and assistance, which he kindly gave, supervising my manuscript for the Swastika in the extreme Orient, and furnishing me the following additional information relative to the Swastika in India, and especially among the Jains:

Fig. 33. EXPLANATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA, ACCORDING TO GANDHI. (1) Archaic or protoplasmic life; (2) Plant and animal life; (3) Human life; (4) Celestial life.

The Swastika is misinterpreted by so-called Western expounders of our ancient Jain philosophy. The original idea was very high, but later on some persons thought the cross represented only the combination of the male and the female principles. While we are on the physical plane and our propensities on the material line, we think it necessary to unite these (sexual) principles for our spiritual growth. On the higher plane the soul is sexless, and those who wish to rise higher than the physical plane must eliminate the idea of sex.

I explain the Jain Swastika by the following illustration [fig. 33]: The horizontal and vertical lines crossing each other at right angles form the Greek cross. They represent spirit and matter. We add four other lines by bending to the right each arm of the cross, then three circles and the crescent, and a circle within the crescent. The idea thus symbolized is that there are four grades of existence of souls in the material universe. The first is the lowest state—Archaic or protoplasmic life. The soul evolves from that state to the next—the earth with its plant and animal life. Then follows the third stage—the human; then the fourth stage—the celestial. The word “celestial” is here held to mean life in other worlds than our own. All these graduations are combinations of matter and soul on different scales. The spiritual plane is that in which the soul is entirely freed from the bonds of matter. In order to reach that plane, one must strive to possess the three jewels (represented by the three circles), right belief, right knowledge, right conduct. When a person has those, he will certainly go higher until he reaches the state of liberation, which is represented by the crescent. The crescent has the form of the rising moon and is always growing larger. The circle in the crescent represents the omniscient state of the soul when it has attained full consciousness, is liberated, and lives apart from matter.

The interpretation, according to the Jain view of the cross, has nothing to do with the combination of the male and female principle. Worship of the male and female principles, ideas based upon sex, lowest even of the emotional plane, can never rise higher than the male and female.

Fig. 34a. THE FORMATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA—FIRST STAGE. Handful of rice or meal, in circular form, thinner in center. Fig. 34b. THE FORMATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA—SECOND STAGE. Rice or meal, as shown in preceding figure, with finger marks, indicated at 1, 2, 3, 4.

The Jains make the Swastika sign when we enter our temple of worship. This sign reminds us of the great principles represented by the three jewels and by which we are to reach the ultimate good. Those symbols intensify our thoughts and make them more permanent.

Fig. 34c. THE FORMATION OF THE JAIN SWASTIKA—THIRD STAGE. Ends turned out, typifying animal, human, and celestial life, as shown in fig. 33.

Mr. Gandhi says the Jains make the sign of the Swastika as frequently and deftly as the Roman Catholics make the sign of the cross. It is not confined to the temple nor to the priests or monks. Whenever or wherever a benediction or blessing is given, the Swastika is used. Figs. 34 a, b, c form a series showing how it is made. A handful of rice, meal, flour, sugar, salt, or any similar substance, is spread over a circular space, say, 3 inches in diameter and one-eighth of an inch deep (fig. 34a), then commence at the outside of the circle (fig. 34b), on its upper or farther left-hand corner, and draw the finger through the meal just to the left of the center, halfway or more to the opposite or near edge of the circle (1), then again to the right (2), then upward (3), finally to the left where it joins with the first mark (4). The ends are swept outward, the dots and crescent put in above, and the sign is complete (fig. 34c).

The sign of the Swastika is reported in great numbers, by hundreds if not by thousands, in the inscriptions on the rock walls of the Buddhist caves in India. It is needless to copy them, but is enough to say that they are the same size as the letters forming the inscription; that they all have four arms and the ends turn at right angles, or nearly so, indifferently to the right or to the left. The following list of inscriptions, containing the Swastikas, is taken from the first book coming to hand—the “Report of Dr. James Burgess on the Buddhist Cave Temples and their Inscriptions, Being a Part of the Result of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Seasons’ Operations of the Archæological Survey of Western India, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879:”[120]

Plate. Inscription number. Direction in which ends are bent.

Bhaja XLIV 2 To right.

Kuda XLVI 26 Do.

Do XLVI 27 To left.

Kol XLVI 5 To right.

Karle XLVII 1 Do.

Do XLVII 3 Do.

Junnar XLIX 5 Do.

Do XLIX 6 To left.

Do XLIX 7 To right.

Do XLIX 8 To left.

Do XLIX 9 To right.

Do XLIX 10 Do.

Do XLIX 11 (?) Do.

Do XLIX 12 Do.

Do XLIX 13 (?) Do.

Do XLIX 13 (?) To left.

Do XLIX 14 Do.

Do L 17 To right.

Do L 19 Do.

Nasik LII 5 Do.

Do LV (Nasik 21) 5 (?) Do.

Do LV (Nasik 24) 8 (?) Do.

Chantre[121] says:

I remind you that the (East) Indians, Chinese, and Japanese employ the Swastika, not only as a religious emblem but as a simple ornament in painting on pottery and elsewhere, the same as we employ the Greek fret, lozenges, and similar motifs in our ornamentation. Sistres [the staff with jingling bells, held in the hand of Buddha, on whose base is engraved a row of Swastikas, fig. 29 of present paper] of similar form and style have been found in prehistoric Swiss lake dwellings of the bronze age. Thus the sistres and the Swastika are brought into relation with each other. The sistres possibly relate to an ancient religion, as they did in the Orient; the Swastika may have had a similar distinction.

De Mortillet and others hold the same opinion.[122]

CLASSICAL ORIENT.

BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA, CHALDEA, AND PERSIA.

Waring[123] says, “In Babylonian and Assyrian remains we search for it [the Swastika] in vain.” Max Müller and Count Goblet d’Alviella are of the same opinion.[124]

Of Persia, D’Alviella (p. 51), citing Ludwig Müller,[125] says that the Swastika is manifested only by its presence on certain coins of the Arsacides and the Sassanides.

PHENICIA.

It is reported by various authors that the Swastika has never been found in Phenicia, e. g. Max Müller, J. B. Waring, Count Goblet d’Alviella.[126]

Ohnefalsch-Richter[127] says that the Swastika is not found in Phenicia, yet he is of the opinion that their emigrant and commercial travelers brought it from the far east and introduced it into Cyprus, Carthage, and the north of Africa. (See p. 796.)

LYCAONIA.

Lempriere, in his Classical Dictionary, under the above title, gives the following:

Fig. 35. BRONZE PIN-HEAD FROM CHEITHAN-THAGH. De Morgan, “Au Caucase,” fig. 177.

A district of Asia Minor forming the southwestern quarter of Phrygia. The origin of its name and inhabitants, the Lycaones, is lost in obscurity. * * * Our first acquaintance with this region is in the relation of the expedition of the younger Cyprus. Its limits varied at different times. At first it extended eastward from Iconium 23 geographical miles, and was separated from Cilicia on the south by the range of Mount Taurus, comprehending a large portion of what in later times was termed Cataonia.

Count Goblet d’Alviella,[128] quoting Perrot and Chipiez,[129] states that the Hittites introduced the Swastika on a bas-relief of Ibriz, Lycaonia, where it forms a border of the robe of a king or priest offering a sacrifice to a god.

ARMENIA.

Fig. 36. BRONZE PIN-HEAD FROM AKTHALA. De Morgan, “Au Caucase,” fig. 178.

Fig. 37. SWASTIKA MARK ON BLACK POTTERY. Cheithan-thagh. De Morgan, “Au Caucase,” fig. 179.

M. J. de Morgan (the present director of the Gizeh Museum at Cairo), under the direction of the French Government, made extensive excavations and studies into the prehistoric antiquities and archæology of Russian Armenia. His report is entitled “Le Premier Âge de Métaux dans l’Arménie Russe.”[130] He excavated a number of prehistoric cemeteries, and found therein various forms of crosses engraved on ceintures, vases, and medallions. The Swastika, though present, was more rare. He found it on the heads of two large bronze pins (figs. 35 and 36) and on one piece of pottery (fig. 37) from the prehistoric tombs. The bent arms are all turned to the left, and would be the Suavastika of Prof. Max Müller.

CAUCASUS.

In Caucasus, M. E. Chantre[131] found the Swastika in great purity of form. Fig. 38 represents portions of a bronze plaque from that country, used on a ceinture or belt. Another of slightly different style, but with square cross and arms bent at right angles, is represented in his pl. 8, fig. 5. These belonged to the first age of iron, and much of the art was intricate.[132] It represented animals as well as all geometric forms, crosses, circles (concentric and otherwise), spirals, meanders, chevrons, herring bone, lozenges, etc. These were sometimes cast in the metal, at other times repoussé, and again were engraved, and occasionally these methods were employed together. Fig. 39 shows another form, frequently employed and suggested as a possible evolution of the Swastika, from the same locality and same plate. Fig. 40 represents signs reported by Waring[133] as from Asia Minor, which he credits, without explanation, to Ellis’s “Antiquities of Heraldry.”

The specimen shown in fig. 41 is reported by Waring,[134] quoting Rzewusky,[135] as one of the several branding marks used on Circassian horses for identification.

Fig. 38. FRAGMENT OF BRONZE CEINTURE. Swastika repoussé. Necropolis of Koban, Caucasus. Chantre, “Le Caucase,” pl. 11, fig. 3.

Fig. 39. BRONZE AGRAFE OR BELT PLATE. Triskelion in spiral. Koban, Caucasus. Chantre, “Le Caucase,” pl. 11, fig. 4.

Fig. 40. SWASTIKA SIGNS FROM ASIA MINOR. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 41, figs. 5 and 6.

Fig. 41. BRAND FOR HORSES IN CIRCASSIA. Ogee Swastika, tetraskelion. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 42, fig. 20c.

Mr. Frederick Remington, the celebrated artist and literateur, has an article, “Cracker Cowboy in Florida,”[136] wherein he discourses of the forgery of brands on cattle in that country. One of his genuine brands is a circle with a small cross in the center. The forgery consists in elongating each arm of the cross and turning it with a scroll, forming an ogee Swastika (fig. 13d), which, curiously enough, is practically the same brand used on Circassian horses (fig. 41). Max Ohnefalsch-Richter[137] says that instruments of copper (audumbaroasih) are recommended in the Atharva-Veda to make the Swastika, which represents the figure 8; and thus he attempts to account for the use of that mark branded on the cows in India (supra, p. 772), on the horses in Circassia (fig. 41), and said to have been used in Arabia.

ASIA MINOR—TROY (HISSARLIK).

Many specimens of the Swastika were found by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, principally on spindle whorls, vases, and bijoux of precious metal. Zmigrodzki[138] made from Dr. Schliemann’s great atlas the following classification of the objects found at Troy, ornamented with the Swastika and its related forms:

Fifty-five of pure form; 114 crosses with the four dots, points or alleged nail holes (Croix swasticale); 102 with three branches or arms (triskelion); 86 with five branches or arms; 63 with six branches or arms; total, 420.

Zmigrodzki continues his classification by adding those which have relation to the Swastika thus: Eighty-two representing stars; 70 representing suns; 42 representing branches of trees or palms; 15 animals non-ferocious, deer, antelope, hare, swan, etc.; total, 209 objects. Many of these were spindle whorls.

Fig. 42. FRAGMENT OF LUSTROUS BLACK POTTERY. Swastika, right. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 247.

Dr. Schliemann, in his works, “Troja” and “Ilios,” describes at length his excavations of these cities and his discoveries of the Swastika on many objects. His reports are grouped under titles of the various cities, first, second, third, etc., up to the seventh city, counting always from the bottom, the first being deepest and oldest. The same system will be here pursued. The first and second cities were 45 to 52 feet (13 to 16 meters) deep; the third, 23 to 33 feet (7 to 10 meters) deep; the fourth city, 13 to 17.6 feet (4 to 5½ meters) deep; the fifth city, 7 to 13 feet (2 to 4 meters) deep; the sixth was the Lydian city of Troy, and the seventh city, the Greek Ilium, approached the surface.

First and Second Cities.—But few whorls were found in the first and second cities[139] and none of these bore the Swastika mark, while thousands were found in the third, fourth, and fifth cities, many of which bore the Swastika mark. Those of the first city, if unornamented, have a uniform lustrous black color and are the shape of a cone (fig. 55) or of two cones joined at the base (figs. 52 and 71). Both kinds were found at 33 feet and deeper. Others from the same city were ornamented by incised lines rubbed in with white chalk, in which case they were flat.[140] In the second city the whorls were smaller than in the first. They were all of a black color and their incised ornamentation was practically the same as those from the upper cities.[141]

Zmigrodzki congratulated himself on having discovered among Schliemann’s finds what he believed to be the oldest representation of the Swastika of which we had reliable knowledge. It was a fragment of a vase (fig. 42) of the lustrous black pottery peculiar to the whorls of the first and second cities. But Zmigrodzki was compelled to recede, which he did regretfully, when Schliemann, in a later edition, inserted the footnote (p. 350) saying, that while he had found this (with a companion piece) at a great depth in his excavations, and had attributed them to the first city, yet, on subsequent examination, he had become convinced that they belonged to the third city.

The Swastika, turned both ways and , was frequent in the third, fourth, and fifth cities.

The following specimens bearing the Swastika mark are chosen, out of the many specimens in Schliemann’s great album, in order to make a fair representation of the various kinds, both of whorls and of Swastikas. They are arranged in the order of cities, the depth being indicated in feet.

Fig. 43. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO SWASTIKAS AND TWO CROSSES. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1858. Fig. 44. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO SWASTIKAS. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1874.

Fig. 45. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO SWASTIKAS. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1919.

Fig. 46. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO SWASTIKAS. Depth, 28 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1826.

The Third, or Burnt, City (23 to 33 feet deep).—The spindle-whorl shown in fig. 43 contains two Swastikas and two crosses.[142] Of the one Swastika, two arms are bent to the right at right angles, while the other two are bent to the right in curves. The other Swastika has but two bends, one at right angles, the other curved, both to the right. The specimen shown in fig. 44 has two Swastikas, in one of which the four arms are bent at right angles to the left. The entire figure is traced in double lines, one heavy and one light, as though to represent edges or shadows. The second Swastika has its ends bent at an obtuse angle to the left, and at the extremities the lines taper to a point. The whorl shown in fig. 45 is nearly spherical, with two Swastikas in the upper part. The ends of the four arms in both are bent at right angles, one to the right, the other to the left. Fig. 46 represents a spindle-whorl with two irregular Swastikas; but one arm is bent at right angles and all the arms and points are uncertain and of unequal lengths. The rest of the field is covered with indefinite and inexplicable marks, of which the only ones noteworthy are points or dots, seven in number. In fig. 47 the top is surrounded by a line of zigzag or dog-tooth ornaments. Within this field, on the upper part and equidistant from the central hole, are three Swastikas, the ends of all of which turn to the left, and but one at right angles. All three have one or more ends bent, not at any angle, but in a curve or hook, making an ogee. Fig. 48 shows a large whorl with two or three Swastikas on its upper surface in connection with several indefinite marks apparently without meaning. The dots are interspersed over the field, the Swastikas all bent to the right, but with uncertain lines and at indefinite angles. In one of them the main line forming the cross is curved toward the central hole; in another, the ends are both bent in the same direction—that is, pointing to the periphery of the whorl. Fig. 49 shows a sphere or globe (see figs. 75, 88) divided by longitudinal lines into four segments, which are again divided by an equatorial line. These segments contain marks or dots and circles, while one segment contains a normal Swastika turned to the left. This terra-cotta ball has figured in a peculiar degree in the symbolic representation of the Swastika. Greg says of it:[143]

We see on one hemisphere the standing for Zeus (= Indra) the sky god, and on the other side a rude representation of a sacred (somma) tree; a very interesting and curious western perpetuation of the original idea and a strong indirect proof of the standing for the emblem of the sky god.

Fig. 47. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE SWASTIKAS. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1851.

Fig. 48. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SWASTIKAS. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1982.

Fig. 49. SPHERE DIVIDED INTO EIGHT SEGMENTS, ONE OF WHICH CONTAINS A SWASTIKA. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1999.

Fig. 50 represents one of the biconical spindle-whorls with various decorations on the two sides, longitudinal lines interspersed with dots, arcs of concentric circles arranged in three parallels, etc. On one of these sides is a normal Swastika, the arms crossing at right angles, the ends bent at right angles to the left. The specimen shown in fig. 51 contains four perfect Swastikas and two inchoate and uncertain. Both of the latter have been damaged by breaking the surface. The four Swastikas all have their arms bent to the right; some are greater than at right angles, and one arm is curved. Several ends are tapered to a point. Fig. 52 shows a whorl of biconical form. It contains two Swastikas, the main arms of which are ogee forms, crossing each other at the center at nearly right angles, the ogee ends curving to the right. In fig. 53 the entire field of the upper surface is filled with, or occupied by, a Greek cross, in the center of which is the central hole of the whorl, while on each of the four arms is represented a Swastika, the main arms all crossing at right angles, the ends all bent to the right at a slightly obtuse angle. Each of these bent ends tapers to a point, some with slight curves and a small flourish. (See figs. 33 and 34 for reference to this flourish.) The specimen shown in fig. 54 has a center field in its upper part, of which the decoration consists of incised parallel lines forming segments of circles, repeated in each one of the four quarters of the field. The center hole is surrounded by two concentric rings of incised lines. In one of these spaces is a single Swastika; its main arms crossing at right angles, two of its ends bent to the left at right angles, the other two in the same direction and curved.

Fig. 50. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SWASTIKA. Schliemann, “Ilios,” Fig. 1949.

Fig. 51. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SIX SWASTIKAS. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1859. Fig. 52. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO OGEE SWASTIKAS. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1876.

Fig. 53. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FOUR SWASTIKAS. Depth, 33 feet. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 1240. Fig. 54. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA. Depth, 33 feet. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 1241.

The Fourth City (13.2 to 17.6 feet deep).—Schliemann says:[144]

We find among the successors of the burnt city the same triangular idols; the same primitive bronze battle-axes; the same terra-cotta vases, with or without tripod feet; the same double-handled goblets (σέπα ὰμφικύπελλα); the same battle-axes of jade, porphyry, and diorite; the same rude stone hammers, and saddle querns of trachyte. * * * The number of rude stone hammers and polished stone axes are fully thrice as large as in the third city, while the masses of shells and cockles accumulated in the débris of the houses are so stupendous that they baffle all description. The pottery is coarser and of a ruder fabric than in the third city. * * * There were also found in the fourth city many needles of bone for female handiwork, boar tusks, spit rests of mica schist, whetstones of slate, porphyry, etc., of the usual form, hundreds of small silex saws, and some knives of obsidian. Stone whorls, which are so abundant at Mycenæ, are but rarely found here; all of those which occur are, according to Mr. Davis, of steatite. On the other hand, terra-cotta whorls, with or without incised ornamentation, are found by thousands; their forms hardly vary from those in the third (the burnt) city, and the same may be generally said of their incised ornamentation. * * * The same representation of specimens of whorls are given as in the third city, and the same observations apply.

Fig. 55. CONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE OGEE SWASTIKAS. Depth 13½ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1850. Fig. 56. CONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FOUR SWASTIKAS OF VARIOUS KINDS. Depth 13½ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1879.

Fig. 57. CONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SWASTIKAS. Depth. 13⅓ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1894. Fig. 58. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA. Depth, 13½ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1983.

Fig. 59. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE OGEE SWASTIKAS. Depth, 13½ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1990.

Fig. 60. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO SWASTIKAS. Depth, 16½ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1863. Fig. 61. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FIVE OGEE SWASTIKAS. Depth, 18 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1905.

Fig. 55 shows a simple cone, the upper surface being flat and without other decoration than three Swastikas equidistant from the hole and from each other, all made by the two crossed ogee lines with ends curved to the right. This specimen is much like that of Fig. 71 (Madam Schliemann collection in the U. S. National Museum, Cat. No. 149704). Fig. 56 shows a remarkable spindle-whorl. Its marks greatly excited the interest of Dr. Schliemann, and he devoted much space to the discussion of these and similar characters. The whorl is in the form of a cone. It bears upon its conical surface four Swastikas, the ends of three of which bend to the right and one to the left. There are but two of these ends which bend at right angles. Most of them are at an obtuse angle, while the ends of two are curved. Some taper to a point and finish with a slight flourish. The other marks which so interested Dr. Schliemann were the chevron ornament (zigzag), drawn in parallel lines, which, he strongly argued, and fortified with many authorities, represented lightning. The second series of marks he called a “burning altar.” This assertion he also fortified with authorities and with illustrations of a similar sign from different countries. (See fig. 101.) The third series of marks represented an animal, name and character unknown, with a head or tusks with two large branching horns or ears, a straight back, a stiff but drooping tail, four legs, and two rows of the remarkable dots—seven in one, six in the other—placed over the back of the animal. (See figs. 99 and 100.) Fig. 57 represents another cone-shaped whorl, the flat surface of which is engraved with one perfect Swastika, the two arms crossing each other at right angles and the two ends bending at right angles to the right; the other two are curved, also to the right. Two of the other figures Dr. Schliemann calls Swastikas, although they are uncertain in some of their arms and angles. The fourth character he imagined to be an inchoate or attempted Swastika. Fig. 58 shows a biconical whorl with curious and inexplicable characters. One of them forms a crude Swastika, which, while the main arms cross at right angles the ends are bent at uncertain angles, three to the left and one to the right. These characters are so undetermined that it is doubtful if they could have had any signification, either ornamental or otherwise. Fig. 59 is almost conical, the flat surface thereof being only slightly raised at the center. It is much the same form as the whorls shown in figs. 55 and 71. The nearly flat surface is the top, and on it, equidistant from the center hole and from each other, are three ogee Swastikas of double lines, with their ends all curved to the right. In the alternate spaces are small incised circles, with dots in the centers. In fig. 60 a biconical whorl is shown. It has three of the circle segments marked in equilateral positions, with three or four parallel lines, after the style shown in Fig. 54. In the spaces are two Swastikas, in both of which the two main arms cross at right angles. Some of the ends bend at a right, and others at an obtuse, angle. In one of the Swastikas the bent ends turn toward each other, forming a rude figure 8. The specimen shown in fig. 61 is biconical, but much flattened; it contains five ogee Swastikas, of which the ends of four bend to the right and one to the left. In an interval between them is one of the burning altars. Fig. 62 shows three Swastikas with double parallel lines. The main arms cross each other at right angles; the ends are bent at nearly right angles, one to the left, one to the right, and the other both ways. Fig. 63 represents a spindle-whorl with a cup-shaped depression around the central hole, which is surrounded by three lines in concentric circles, while on the field, at 90 degrees from each other, are four ogee Swastikas (tetraskelions), the arms all turning to the left and spirally each upon itself. The specimen shown in fig. 64 is biconical, though, as usual, the upper cone is the smallest. There are parallel lines, three in a set, forming the segments of three circles, in one space of which appears a Swastika of a curious and unique form, similar to that shown in fig. 60. The two main arms cross each other at very nearly right angles and the ends also bend at right angles toward and approaching each other, so that if continued slightly farther they would close and form a decorative figure 8. The specimen shown in fig. 65 is decorated with parallel lines, three in number, arranged in segments of three circles, the periphery of which is toward the center, as in figs. 60 and 64. In one of the spaces is a Swastika of curious form; the main arms cross each other at right angles, but the four ends represent different styles—two are bent square to the left, one square to the right, and the fourth curves to the left at no angle. Fig. 66 shows a biconical whorl, and its top is decorated to represent three Swastikas and three burning altars. The ends of the arms of the Swastikas all bend to the left, some are at right angles and some at obtuse angles, while two or three are curved; two of them show corrections, the marks at the ends having been changed in one case at a different angle and in another from a straight line to a curve. Fig. 67 shows four specimens of Swastika, the main arms of all of which cross at right angles. The ends all bend to the right, at nearly right angles, tapering to a point and finishing with the slight flourish noted in the Jain Swastika (fig. 34c). They are alternated with a chevron decoration. Fig. 68 shows three Swastikas, the ends of the arms of which are all bent to the left. One Swastika is composed of two ogee lines. Two arms of another are curved, but all others are bent at right angles, some of them tapering to points, finishing with a little flourish (figs. 67 and 34c). One of these ends, like that in fig. 66, has been corrected by the maker. Fig. 69 represents one Swastika in which the main arms cross at nearly right angles. Both ends of one arm turn to the left and those of the other arm turn to the right in figure 8 style. One of the ends is curved, the others bent at different angles. Fig. 70 shows the parallel lines representing segments of a circle similar to figs. 60, 64, 65, and 69, except that it has four instead of three. It has one Swastika; the main arms (of double lines) cross at right angles, the ends all curving to the left with a slight ogee.

Fig. 62. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE SWASTIKAS. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1855. Fig. 63. SPINDLE-WHORL HAVING FOUR OGEE SWASTIKAS WITH SPIRAL VOLUTES. Depth, 18 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1868.

Fig. 64. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1865.

Fig. 65. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1866. Fig. 66. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE SWASTIKAS AND THREE BURNING ALTARS. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1872.

Fig. 67. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FOUR SWASTIKAS. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1873. Fig. 68. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE SWASTIKAS OF DIFFERENT STYLES. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1911.

Fig. 69. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA OF THE FIGURE-8 STYLE. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1861.

Fig. 70. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA, SLIGHT OGEE. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1864.

Fig. 71. CONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE OGEE SWASTIKAS. Depth, 13.5 feet. Gift of Madame Schliemann, Cat. No. 149704, U. S. N. M.

The U. S. National Museum was, during 1893, the fortunate recipient of a collection of objects from Madame Schliemann, which her husband, before his death, had signified should be given to the United States as a token of his remembrance of and regard for his adopted country. He never forgot that he was an American citizen, and, preparing for death, made his acknowledgments in the manner mentioned. The collection consisted of 178 objects, all from ancient Troy, and they made a fair representation of his general finds. This collection is in the Department of Prehistoric Anthropology. In this collection is a spindle-whorl, found at 13½ feet (4 meters) depth and belonging to the fourth city. It had three Swastikas upon its face, and is here shown as fig. 71.[145]

The Fifth City.—Schliemann says:[146]

The rude stone hammers found in enormous quantities in the fourth city are no longer found in this stratum, nor did the stone axes, which are so very abundant there, occur again here. Instead of the hundreds of axes I gathered in the fourth city, I collected in all only two here. * * * The forms of the terra-cotta whorls, too, are in innumerable instances different here. These objects are of a much inferior fabric, and become elongated and pointed. Forms of whorls like Nos. 1801, 1802, and 1803 [see figs. 72, 73, and 74], which were never found before, are here plentiful.

Figs. 72, 73, 74. FORMS OF WHORLS FROM THE FIFTH BURIED CITY OF HISSARLIK, FOR COMPARISON. Schliemann, “Ilios,” figs. 1801, 1802, 1803.

The Sixth and Seventh Cities.—The sixth city is described in “Ilios,” page 587, and the seventh on pages 608 and 618. Both cities contained occasional whorls of clay, all thoroughly baked, without incised or painted ornamentation, and shed no further light on the Swastika.

Fig. 75 represents the opposite hemispheres of a terra-cotta ball, found at a depth of 26 feet, divided by incised lines into fifteen zones, of which two are ornamented with points and the middle zone, the largest of all, with thirteen specimens of and .

Fig. 75. TERRA-COTTA SPHERE WITH THIRTEEN SWASTIKAS. Third city. Depth, 26 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” figs. 245, 246.

Fig. 76. TERRA-COTTA DISK WITH ONE SWASTIKA. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1849.

Fig. 77. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH OGEE SWASTIKA. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1822.

Zmigrodzki says[147] that there were found by Schliemann, at Hissarlik, fifty-five specimens of the Swastika “pure and simple” (pp. 809, 826). It will be perceived by examination that the Swastika “pure and simple” comprised Swastikas of several forms; those in which the four arms of the cross were at other angles besides right angles; those in which the ends bent at square and other angles to the right; then those to the left (Burnouf and Max Müller’s Suavastika); those in which the bends were, some to the right and some to the left, in the same design; where the points tapered off and turned outward with a flourish; where the arms bent at no angle, but were in spirals each upon itself, and turned, some to the right, some to the left. We shall see other related forms, as where the arms turn spirally upon each other instead of upon themselves. These will sometimes have three, five, six, or more arms, instead of four (p. 768). The cross and the circle will also appear in connection with the Swastika; and other designs, as zigzags (lightning), burning altars, men, animals, and similar representations will be found associated with the Swastika, and are only related to it by the association of similar objects from the same locality. A description of their patterns will include those already figured, together with Schliemann’s comments as to signification and frequency. They become more important because these related forms will be found in distant countries and among distant peoples, notably among the prehistoric peoples of America. Possibly these designs have a signification, possibly not. Dr. Schliemann thought that in many cases they had. Professor Sayce supported him, strongly inclining toward an alphabetic or linguistic, perhaps ideographic, signification. No opinion is advanced by the author on these theories, but the designs are given in considerable numbers, to the end that the evidence may be fully reported, and future investigators, radical and conservative, imaginative and unimaginative, theorists and agnostics, may have a fair knowledge of this mysterious sign, and an opportunity to indulge their respective talents at length. Possibly these associated designs may throw some light upon the origin or history of the Swastika or of some of its related forms.

Fig. 78. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH IRREGULAR SWASTIKAS AND CROSSES. Fourth city. Depth, 13.6 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1871. Fig. 79. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH UNCERTAIN AND MALFORMED SWASTIKAS. Third city. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1870.

Fig. 80. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH IRREGULAR AND PARTLY FORMED SWASTIKAS HAVING LARGE DOT IN CENTER. Fourth city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1875. Fig. 81. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED, WITH TWO SWASTIKAS AND INDEFINITE DECORATION. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1947.

Fig. 82. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA AND FOUR SEGMENTS OF CIRCLES. Third city. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1989.

The specimen represented in fig. 76 is not a spindle-whorl, as shown by the number and location of the holes. It bears a good representation of a Swastika the form of which has been noticed several times. The two main arms cross each other at nearly right angles. The ends of the arms all bend to the right at a slightly obtuse angle and turn outward with a flourish somewhat after the style of the Jain Swastika (fig. 34c). Fig. 77 represents a spindle-whorl with a Swastika of the ogee style curved to the right. The center hole of the whorl forms the center of the sign. The figure is of double lines, and in the interspaces are four dots, similar to those in figs. 96-98, and others which Dr. Schliemann reports as common, and to which he attributes some special but unknown meaning. Swastikas and crosses of irregular shape and style are shown in the field of fig. 78. Two fairly well formed Swastikas appear, both of the ogee style, with the ends curved to the right. One is of the style resembling the figure 8 (see figs. 60 and 64). Two others are crudely and irregularly formed, and would scarcely be recognized as Swastikas except for their association. Fig. 79 represents uncertain and malformed Swastikas. The arms are bent in different directions in the same line. Two of the main arms are not bent. The inexplicable dots are present, and the field is more or less covered with unmeaning or, at least, unexplained marks. Fig. 80 also illustrates the indefinite and inchoate style of decoration. One unfinished Swastika appears which, unlike anything we have yet seen, has a circle with a dot in the center for the body of the Swastika at the crossing of the main arms. Fig. 81 shows two Swastikas, both crossing their main arms at right angles and the ends bending also at right angles—one to the right, the other to the left. This specimen is inserted here because of the numerous decorations of apparently unmeaning, or, at least, unexplained, lines. Fig. 82 shows four segmented circles with an indefinite Swastika in one of the spaces. The ends are not well turned, only one being well attached to the main arms. One of the ends is not joined, one overruns and forms a sort of cross; the other has no bend. Fig. 83 contains an unmistakable Swastika, the main arms of which cross at right angles, turning to the left with an ogee curve. The peculiarity of this specimen is that the center of the sign is inclosed in a circle, thus showing the indifference of the Swastika sign to other signs, whether cross or circle. The outer parts of the field are occupied with the parallel lines of the circle segment, as shown in many other specimens. The specimen shown in fig. 84 is similar in style to the last. The bodies of six Swastikas are formed by a circle and dot, while the arms of the cross start from the outside of the circle, extending themselves in curves, all of them to the right. (See fig. 13d.) It has no other ornamentation. The same remark is to be made about the indifferent use of the Swastika in association with cross or circle. We have seen many Swastikas composed of the crossed ogee lines or curves. Figs. 85 and 86 show the same ogee lines and curves not crossed; and thus, while it may be that neither of them are Swastikas, yet they show a relationship of form from which the derivation of a Swastika would be easy.

Fig. 83. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED. Ogee Swastika with central circle. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1987.

Fig. 84. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SIX OGEE SWASTIKAS HAVING CENTRAL CIRCLE AND DOT. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1862. Fig. 85. SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FLATTENED TOP AND OGEE LINES WHICH DO NOT FORM SWASTIKAS. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1890.

Fig. 86. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH OGEE CURVES WHICH ARE NOT CROSSED TO FORM SWASTIKAS. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1889.

Attention has been called to decorations comprising segments of the circles incised in these whorls, the periphery of which is toward their centers (figs. 60, 64, 65, 69, 70, 82 and 83). Also to the mysterious dots (figs. 46, 56, 75, 76, 77, 79, 84, 92, 96 and 97). Fig. 87 shows a combination of the segments of three circles, the dots within each, and two Swastikas. Of the Swastikas, one is normal, turning to the right; the other turns to the right, but at an obtuse angle, with one end straight and the other irregularly curved. Fig. 88 represents two sections of a terra-cotta sphere divided similar to fig. 49. Each of these sections contains a figure like unto a Swastika and which may be related to it. It is a circle with arms springing from the periphery, which arms turn all to the left, as they do in the ogee Swastika. One has seven, the other nine, arms. One has regular, the other irregular, lines and intervals. Fig. 89 represents a spindle-whorl of terra cotta nearly spherical, with decoration of a large central dot and lines springing thereout, almost like the spokes of a wheel, then all turning to the left as volutes. In some countries this has been called the sun symbol, but there is nothing to indicate that it had any signification at Hissarlik. One of the marks resembles the long-backed, four-legged animal (figs. 99 and 100).[148] Figs. 90, 91, 92, and 93 show a further adaptation of the ogee curve developed into a Swastika, in which many arms start from the center circle around the central hole in the whorl, finally taking a spiral form. The relation of this to a sun symbol is only mentioned and not specified or declared. The inexplicable and constantly recurring dots are seen in fig. 90.

Fig. 87. SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED. Two Swastikas combined with segments and dots. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1988.

Fig. 88. SECTIONS OF TERRA-COTTA SPHERE.[149] Central circles with extended arms turning to the left, ogee and zigzag. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1993.

Fig. 89. SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Large central dot with twelve arms, similar in form to the ogee Swastika. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1946.

It is not contended that these are necessarily evolutions of the Swastika. We will see farther on many lines and forms of decoration by incised lines on these Trojan whorls, which may have had no relation to the Swastika, but are inserted here because persons rich in theories and brilliant in imagination have declared that they could see a resemblance, a relation, in this or some other decoration. As objects belonging to the same culture, from the same locality, and intimately associated with unmistakable Swastikas, they were part of the res gestæ, and as such entitled to admission as evidence in the case. The effect of their evidence is a legitimate subject for discussion and argument. To refuse these figures admission would be to decide the case against this contention without giving the opposing party an opportunity to see the evidence or to be heard in argument. Therefore the objects are inserted.

Fig. 90. SPINDLE-WHORL. Central dot with ogee arms radiating therefrom in different directions, but in the form of a Swastika. Third City. Depth, 29 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1830. Fig. 91. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH CENTRAL HOLE AND RADIATING ARMS. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1842.

Specimens of other crosses are presented because the Swastika is considered to be a form of the cross. There may have been no evolution or relationship between them; but no person is competent to decide from a mere inspection or by reason of dissimilarity that there was not. We have to plead ignoramus as to the growth and evolution of both cross and Swastika, because the origin of both is lost in antiquity. But all are fair subjects for discussion. There certainly is nothing improbable in the relationship and evolution between the Swastika and the cross. It may be almost assumed.

Fig. 92. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH CENTRAL CIRCLE AND MANY ARMS. Fourth city. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1837. Fig. 93. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH CENTRAL HOLE, LARGE CIRCLE, AND MANY CURVED ARMS. Third city. Depth, 29 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1833.

Evidence leading to conviction may be found in associated contemporaneous specimens. M. Montelius, an archæologist of repute in the National Museum at Stockholm, discovered eight stages of culture in the bronze age of that country, which discovery was based solely upon the foregoing principle applied to the fibulæ found in prehistoric graves. In assorting his stock of fibulæ, he was enabled to lay out a series of eight styles, each different, but with many presentations. He arranged them seriatim, according to certain differences in size, style, elegance of workmanship, etc., No. 1 being the smallest, and No. 8 the largest and most elaborate. They were then classified according to locality and association, and he discovered that Nos. 1 and 2 belonged together, on the same body or in the same grave, and the same with Nos. 2 and 3, 3 and 4, and so on to No. 8, but that there was no general or indefinite intermixture; Nos. 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 were not found together and were not associated, and so on. Nos. 7 and 8 were associated, but not 6 and 8, nor 5 and 7, nor was there any association beyond adjoining numbers in the series. Thus Montelius was able to determine that each one or each two of the series formed a stage in the culture of these peoples. While the numbers of the series separated from each other, as 1, 5, 8, were never found associated, yet it was conclusively shown that they were related, were the same object, all served a similar purpose, and together formed an evolutionary series showing their common origin, derivative growth and continuous improvement in art, always by communication between their makers or owners.

Fig. 94. LARGE BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Four crosses with bifurcated arms. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1855.

Fig. 95. SPINDLE-WHORL. Hole and large circle in center with broad arms of Greek cross. Third city. Depth, 26.4 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1820. Fig. 96. SPINDLE-WHORL. Hole and large circle in center. Extended parallel arms with dots, forming a Greek Cross. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1817. Fig. 97. SPINDLE-WHORL. Greek cross. Tapering arms with dots. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1818.

Fig. 98. SPINDLE-WHORL. Central hole and three arms with dots. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1819.

Thus it may be with the other forms of crosses, and thus it appears to be with the circle and spiral Swastikas and those with ends bent in opposite and different directions. Just what their relations are and at which end of the series the evolution began, is not argued. This is left for the theorists and imaginists, protesting, however, that they must not run wild nor push their theories beyond bounds. Fig. 94 represents four crosses, the main arms of which are at right angles, and each and all ends, instead of being turned at an angle which would make them Swastikas, are bifurcated and turn both ways, thus forming a foliated cross similar to the Maya cross, the “Tree of life.” Figs. 95, 96, and 97 show Greek crosses. The centers of the crosses are occupied by the central hole of the whorl, while the arms extend to the periphery. In the centers of the respective arms are the ubiquitous dots. The question might here be asked whether these holes, which represented circles, stood for the sun symbol or solar disk. The question carries its own answer and is a refutation of those who fancy they can see mythology in everything. Fig. 98 is the same style of figure with the same dots, save that it has three instead of four arms. Figs. 99 and 100 each show four of the curious animals heretofore represented (fig. 56) in connection with the Swastika. They are here inserted for comparison. They are all of the same form, and one description will serve. Back straight, tail drooping, four legs, round head showing eye on one side, and long ears resembling those of a rabbit or hare, which, in fig. 56, are called horns. The general remarks in respect to the propriety of inserting crosses and burning altars (p. 824) apply with equal pertinency to these animals and to the unexplained dots seen on so many specimens. Fig. 101 shows both ends of a spindle-whorl, and is here inserted because it represents one of the “burning altars” of Dr. Schliemann, associated with a Swastika, as in figs. 61, 66, and 68, and even those of figure-8 style (figs. 64 and 69).

Fig. 99. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Four animals are shown similar to those found associated with the Swastika. Third city. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1877.

Fig. 100. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Four animals are shown similar to those found associated with the Swastika. Fourth city. Depth, 19.6 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1867.

Fig. 101. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FIGURE-8 SWASTIKA (?) AND SIX “BURNING ALTARS.” Fourth city. Depth, 19.6 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1838.

Dr. Schliemann found, during his excavations on the hill of Hissarlik, no less than 1,800 spindle-whorls. A few were from the first and second cities; they were of somewhat peculiar form (figs. 72 and 74), but the greatest number were from the third city, thence upward in decreasing numbers. The Swastika pure and simple was found on 55 specimens, while its related or suggested forms were on 420 (pp. 809, 819). Many of the other whorls were decorated with almost every imaginable form of dot, dash, circle, star, lozenge, zigzag, with many indefinite and undescribable forms. In presenting the claims of the Swastika as an intentional sign, with intentional, though perhaps different, meanings, it might be unsatisfactory to the student to omit descriptions of these associated decorative forms. This description is impossible in words; therefore the author has deemed it wiser to insert figures of these decorations as they appeared on the spindle-whorls found at Troy, and associated with those heretofore given with the Swastika. It is not decided, however, that these have any relation to the Swastika, or that they had any connection with its manufacture or existence, either by evolution or otherwise, but they are here inserted to the end that the student and reader may take due account of the association and make such comparison as will satisfy him. (Figs. 102 to 124.)

102. 103. 104.

105. 106. 107.

108. 109. 110.

111. 112. 113.

Figs. 102-113. TROJAN SPINDLE-WHORLS. Schliemann, “Ilios.”

114. 115. 116.

117. 118. 119.

120. 121. 122.

123. 124.

Figs. 114-124. TROJAN SPINDLE-WHORLS. Schliemann, “Ilios.”

Leaden idol of Hissarlik.—Dr. Schliemann, in his explorations on the hill of Hissarlik, at a depth of 23 feet, in the third, the burnt city, found a metal idol (fig. 125), which was determined on an analysis to be lead.[150] It was submitted to Professor Sayce who made the following report:[151]

It is the Artemis Nana of Chaldea, who became the chief deity of Carchemish, the Hittite capital, and passed through Asia Minor to the shores and islands of the Ægean Sea. Characteristic figures of the goddess have been discovered at Mycenæ as well as in Cyprus.

Fig. 125. LEADEN IDOL OF ARTEMIS NANA OF CHALDEA, WITH SWASTIKA.[153] Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 126. 1⅓ natural size.

In “Troja” Professor Sayce says:

Precisely the same figure, with ringlets on either side of the head, but with a different ornament (dots instead of Swastika) sculptured on a piece of serpentine was recently found in Mæonia, and published by M. Salmon Reinach in Revue Archæologique. By the side of the goddess stands the Babylonian Bel, and among the Babylonian symbols that surround them is the representation of one of the terra-cotta whorls, of which Dr. Schliemann found such multitudes at Troy.

The chief interest to us of Dr. Schliemann’s description of the idol lies in the last paragraph:[152]

The vulva is represented by a large triangle, in the upper side of which we see three globular dots; we also see two lines of dots to the right and left of the vulva. The most curious ornament of the figure is a Swastika, which we see in the middle of the vulva. * * * So far as we know, the only figures to which the idol before us has any resemblance are the female figures of white marble found in tombs in Attica and in the Cyclades. Six of them, which are in the museum at Athens, * * * represent naked women. * * * The vulva is represented on the six figures by a large triangle. * * * Similar white Parian marble figures, found in the Cyclades, whereon the vulva is represented by a decorated triangle, are preserved in the British Museum. Lenorment, in “Les Antiquités de la Troade” (p. 46), says: “The statuettes of the Cyclades, in the form of a naked woman, appear to be rude copies made by the natives, at the dawn of their civilization, from the images of the Asiatic goddess which had been brought by Phœnician merchants. They were found in the most ancient sepulchers of the Cyclades, in company with stone weapons, principally arrowheads of obsidian from Milo, and with polished pottery without paintings. We recognize in them the figures of the Asiatic Venus found in such large numbers from the banks of the Tigris to the island of Cyprus, through the whole extent of the Chaldeo-Assyrian, Aramæan, and Phœnician world. Their prototype is the Babylonian Zarpanit, or Zirbanit, so frequently represented on the cylinders and by terra-cotta idols, the fabrication of which begins in the most primitive time of Chaldea and continues among the Assyrians.

It is to be remarked that this mark is not on the vulva, as declared by Schliemann, but rather on a triangle shield which covers the mons veneris.

Professor Sayce is of the opinion, from the evidence of this leaden idol, that the Swastika was, among the Trojans, a symbol of the generative power of man.

An added interest centers in these specimens from the fact that terra-cotta shields of similar triangular form, fitted to the curvature of the body, were worn in the same way in prehistoric times by the aboriginal women of Brazil. These pieces have small holes at the angles, apparently for suspension by cords. The U. S. National Museum has some of these, and they will be figured in the chapter relating to Brazil. The similarity between these distant objects is remarkable, whether they were related or not, and whether the knowledge or custom came over by migration or not.

Fig. 126. TERRA-COTTA VASE WITH MAMELON. Fourth city. Depth, 16.5 feet. Cat. No. 149676, U. S. N. M. ⅓ natural size. Fig. 127. TERRA-COTTA VASE WITH CIRCLE OR RING. Fourth city. Depth, 20 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 988. ⅓ natural size.

Owl-shaped vases.—It is also remarkable to note in this connection the series of owl-shaped terra-cotta vases of the ruined cities of Hissarlik and their relation to the Swastika as a possible symbol of the generative power. These vases have rounded bottoms, wide bellies, high shoulders (the height of which is emphasized by the form and position of the handles), the mouth narrow and somewhat bottle-shaped, but not entirely so. What would be the neck is much larger than usual for a bottle, and more like the neck of a human figure, which the object in its entirety represents in a rude, but, nevertheless, definite, manner. At the top of the vase are the eyes, eyebrows, and the nose. It is true that the round eyes, the arched eyebrows, and the pointed nose give it somewhat an owlish face, but if we look at fig. 127, the human appearance of which is emphasized by the cover of the vase, which serves as a cap for the head and has the effect of enlarging it to respectable dimensions, we will see how nearly it represents a human being. The U. S. National Museum possesses one of these vases in the Schliemann collection (fig. 126). It has the face as described, while the other human organs are only indicated by small knobs. It and the three figures, 127, 128, and 129, form a series of which the one in the Museum would be the first, the others following in the order named. No. 2 in the series has the female attributes indefinitely and rudely indicated, the lower organ being represented by a concentric ring. In No. 3 the mammæ are well shown, while the other organ has the concentric ring, the center of which is filled with a Greek cross with four dots, one in each angle, the Croix swasticale of Zmigrodzki (fig. 12). No. 4 of the series is more perfect as a human, for the mouth is represented by a circle, the mammæ are present, while in the other locality appears a well-defined Swastika. The first three of these were found in the fourth city at 20 to 22 feet depth, respectively; the last was found in the fifth city at a depth of 10 feet. The leaden idol (fig. 125), with its Swastika mark on the triangle covering the private parts, may properly be considered as part of the series. When to this series is added the folium vitus of Brazil (pl. 18), the similarity becomes significant, if not mysterious. But, with all this significance and mystery, it appears to the author that this sign, in its peculiar position, has an equal claim as a symbol of blessing, happiness, good fortune, as that it represents the generative power.

Fig. 128. TERRA-COTTA VASE WITH CIRCLE OR RING AND CROIX SWASTICALE. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 986. ⅙ natural size. Fig. 129. TERRA-COTTA VASE WITH CIRCLE OR RING INCLOSING SWASTIKA. Schliemann, “Troja,” fig. 101. ⅖ natural size.

From the earliest time of which we have knowledge of the thoughts or desires of man we know that the raising up “heirs of his body” constituted his greatest blessing and happiness, and their failure his greatest misery. The first and greatest command of God to man, as set forth in the Holy Bible, is to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”[154] This was repeated after the Deluge,[155] and when He pronounced the curse in the Garden, that upon the woman[156] was, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” God’s greatest blessing to Abraham, when He gave to him and his seed the land as far as he could see, was that his seed should be as the dust of the earth, “so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.”[157] “Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them * * * so shall thy seed be. * * * As the father of many nations,” etc. We all know the story of Sarai, how, when she and Abraham had all riches and power on earth, it was as naught while they were childless, and how their greatest blessing was the Divine promise of an heir, and that their greatest happiness was over the birth of Isaac. This may be no proof of the symbolism of the Swastika, but it shows how, in high antiquity, man’s happiness in his children was such as makes the Swastika mark, in the position indicated, equally a symbol of good fortune and blessing as it was when put on the spindle-whorls of Hissarlik, the vases of Greece, or the fibulæ of Etruria.

The age of the Trojan cities.—It may be well to consider for a moment the age or epoch of these prehistoric Trojan cities on the hill of Hissarlik. Professor Virchow was appealed to by Schliemann for his opinion. He says:[158]

Other scholars have been inclined to ascribe the oldest cities of Hissarlik to the Neolithic age, because remarkable weapons and utensils of polished stone are found in them. * * * This conception is unjustified and inadmissible. To the third century A. D. belongs the surface of the fortress hill of Hissarlik, which still lies above the Macedonian wall; and the oldest “cities”—although not only polished stones but also chipped flakes of chalcedony and obsidian occur in them—nevertheless fall within the age of metals, for even in the first city utensils of copper, gold, and even silver were dug up. No stone people, properly so called, dwelt upon the fortress hill of Hissarlik, so far as it has been uncovered.

Virchow’s opinion that none of the cities of Hissarlik were in the stone age may be correct, but the reason he gave is certainly doubtful. He says they come within the age of metals, for, or because, “utensils of copper, gold, and even silver were dug up among the ruins of the first city.” That the metals, gold, silver, or copper, were used by the aborigines, is no evidence that they were in a metal age, as it has been assigned and understood by prehistoric archæologists. The great principle upon which the names of the respective prehistoric ages—stone, bronze, and iron—were given, was that these materials were used for cutting and similar implements. The use of gold and silver or any metal for ornamental purposes has never been considered by archæologists as synchronous with a metal age. Indeed, in the United States there are great numbers of aboriginal cutting implements of copper, of which the U. S. National Museum possesses a collection of five or six hundred; yet they were not in sufficient number to, and they did not, supersede the use of stone as the principal material for cutting implements, and so do not establish a copper age in America. In Paleolithic times bone was largely used as material for utensils and ornaments. Bone was habitually in use for one purpose or another, yet no one ever pretended that this establishes a bone age. In countries and localities where stone is scarce and shell abundant, cutting implements were, in prehistoric times, made of shell; and chisels or hatchets of shell, corresponding to the polished stone hatchet, were prevalent wherever the conditions were favorable, yet nobody ever called it an age of shell. So, in the ruined cities of Hissarlik, the first five of them abounded in stone implements peculiar to the Neolithic age, and while there may have been large numbers of implements and utensils of other materials, yet this did not change it from the polished stone age. In any event, the reason given by Virchow—i. e., that the use, undisputed, of copper, gold, and silver by the inhabitants of these cities—is not evidence to change their culture status from that denominated as the polished stone age or period.

Professor Virchow subsequently does sufficient justice to the antiquity of Schliemann’s discoveries and says[159] while “it is impossible to assign these strata to the stone age, yet they are indications of what is the oldest known settlement in Asia Minor of a people of prehistoric times of some advance in civilization,” and[160] that “no place in Europe is known which could be put in direct connection with any one of the six lower cities of Hissarlik.”

Professor Sayce also gives his opinion on the age of these ruins:[161]

The antiquities, therefore, unearthed by Dr. Schliemann at Troy, acquire for us a double interest. They carry us back to the later stone ages of the Aryan race.

AFRICA.

EGYPT.

A consensus of the opinions of antiquarians is that the Swastika had no foothold among the Egyptians. Prof. Max Müller is of this opinion, as is also Count Goblet d’Alviella.[162]

Waring[163] says:

The only sign approaching the fylfot in Egyptian hieroglyphics that we have met is shown in fig. 3, pl. 41, where it forms one of the hieroglyphs of Isis, but is not very similar to our fylfot.

Mr. Greg says:[164] “In Egypt the fylfot does not occur.” Many other authors say the same. Yet many specimens of the Swastika have been found in Egypt (figs. 130 to 136). Professor Goodyear[165] says:

The earliest dated Swastikas are of the third millenium B. C., and occur on the foreign Cyprian and Carian (?) pottery fragments of the time of the twelfth dynasty (in Egypt), discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie in 1889. (Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, pl. 27, Nos. 162 and 173.)

Fig. 130. GREEK VASE SHOWING DEER, GEESE, AND SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Sixth and fifth centuries, B. C. Petrie, Third Memoir, Egypt Exploration Fund, part 1, pl. 4, fig. 3, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 60, fig. 2.

Fig. 130a. DETAIL OF VASE SHOWN IN THE PRECEDING FIGURE.

Naukratis.—Figs. 130 to 135, made after illustrations in Mr. W. Flinders Petrie’s Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Pt. 1), found by him in Naukratis, all show unmistakable Swastikas. It should be explained that these are said to be Greek vases which have been imported into Egypt. So that, while found in Egypt and so classed geographically, they are not Egyptian, but Greek.

Coptos (Achmim-Panopolis).—Within the past few years great discoveries have been made in Upper Egypt, in Sakkarah, Fayum, and Achmim, the last of which was the ancient city of Panopolis. The inhabitants of Coptos and the surrounding or neighboring cities were Christian Greeks, who migrated from their country during the first centuries of our era and settled in this land of Egypt. Strabo mentions these people and their ability as weavers and embroiderers. Discoveries have been made of their cemeteries, winding sheets, and grave clothes. These clothes have been subjected to analytic investigation, and it is the conclusion of M. Gerspach, the administrator of the national manufactory of the Gobelin tapestry, Paris,[166] that they were woven in the same way as the Gobelins, and that, except being smaller, they did not differ essentially from them. He adds:

These Egyptian tapestries and those of the Gobelins are the result of work which is identical except in some secondary details, so that I have been able, without difficulty, to reproduce these Coptic tapestries in the Gobelin manufactory.

Fig. 131. POTTERY FRAGMENTS WITH TWO MEANDER SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Third Memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, part 1, pl. 5, figs. 15, 24.

Fig. 132. FRAGMENT OF GREEK VASE WITH LION AND THREE MEANDER SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, fig. 7, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 30, fig. 2.

On one of these Coptic cloths, made of linen, reproduced in “Die Gräber- und Textilfunde von Achmim-Panopolis,” by R. Forrer, occurs a normal Swastika embroidered or woven, tapestry fashion, with woolen thread (fig. 136). It belongs to the first epoch, which includes portions of the first and second centuries A. D. There were on these cloths an enormous amount of decoration, representing many figures, both natural and geometric. Among them was the Swastika variously applied and in different sizes, sometimes inserted in borders, and sometimes adorning the corners of the tunics and togas as a large medallion, as shown in the figure.[167]

Fig. 133. FRAGMENT OF GREEK VASE DECORATED WITH FIGURES OF SACRED ANIMALS AND SWASTIKAS, ASSOCIATED WITH GREEK FRET. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, pl. 6, fig. 1.

Fig. 134. FRAGMENT OF GREEK VASE WITH FIGURES OF ANIMALS, TWO MEANDER SWASTIKAS, AND GREEK FRET. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, pl. 8, fig. 1, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 30, fig. 10.

Fig. 135. GREEK VASE WITH DEER, AND MEANDER AND FIGURE-8 SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, pl. 5, fig. 1.

Fig. 136. GREEK TAPESTRY. Coptos, Egypt. First and second centuries, A. D. Forrer, “Die Gräber- und Textilfunde von Achmin-Panopolis.”

ALGERIA.

Fig. 137. TORUS OF COLUMN WITH SWASTIKAS. Roman ruins, Algeria. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 43, fig. 2, quoting from Delamare.

Waring, in his “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” discoursing upon the Swastika, which he calls fylfot, shows in pl. 43, fig. 2 (quoting from Delamare), the base of a column from a ruined Roman building in Algeria (fig. 137), on the torus of which are engraved two Swastikas, the arms crossing at right angles, all ends bent at right angles to the left. There are other figures (five and six on the same plate) of Swastikas from a Roman mosaic pavement in Algeria. Instead of being square, however, or at right angles, as might ordinarily be expected from mosaic, they are ogee. In one of the specimens the ogee ends finish in a point; in the other they finish in a spiral volute turning upon itself. The Swastika has been found on a tombstone in Algeria.[168]

ASHANTEE.

Fig. 138. BRONZE INGOTS BEARING SWASTIKAS. Coomassee, Ashantee.

Mr. R. B. Æneas McLeod, of Invergordon Castle, Ross-shire, Scotland, reported[169] that, on looking over some curious bronze ingots captured at Coomassee in 1874, during the late Ashantee war, by Captain Eden, in whose possession they were at Inverness, he had found some marked with the Swastika sign (fig. 138). These specimens were claimed to be aboriginal, but whether the marks were cast or stamped in the ingot is not stated.

CLASSICAL OCCIDENT—MEDITERRANEAN.

GREECE AND THE ISLANDS OF CYPRUS, RHODES, MELOS, AND THERA.

The Swastika has been discovered in Greece and in the islands of the Archipelago on objects of bronze and gold, but the principal vehicle was pottery; and of these the greatest number were the painted vases. It is remarkable that the vases on which the Swastika appears in the largest proportion should be the oldest, those belonging to the Archaic period. Those already shown as having been found at Naukratis, in Egypt, are assigned by Mr. Flinders Petrie to the sixth and fifth centuries B. C., and their presence is accounted for by migrations from Greece.

Fig. 139. VARIATION OF THE GREEK FRET. Continuous lines crossing each other at right angles forming figures resembling the Swastikas. Fig. 140. GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE IN THE LEYDEN MUSEUM, WITH FIGURES OF GEESE AND SWASTIKA IN PANEL.[170] Smyrna. Conze, “Anfänge,” etc., Vienna, 1870, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 56, fig. 4.

Fig. 141. GREEK VASE WITH FIGURES OF HORSES, GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTS AND SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Athens. Dennis, “Etruria,” 1, p. cxiii. Fig. 142. GREEK VASE WITH SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Conze, “Anfänge,” etc., and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 60, fig. 13.

The Greek fret and Egyptian meander not the same as the Swastika.—Professor Goodyear says:[171] “There is no proposition in archæology which can be so easily demonstrated as the assertion that the Swastika is originally a fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are called in evidence.”

Egyptian meander here means the Greek fret. Despite the ease with which he says it can be demonstrated that the Swastika was originally a fragment of the Egyptian meander, and with all respect for the opinion of so profound a student of classic ornament, doubts must arise as to the existence of the evidence necessary to prove his proposition.

Fig. 143. DETAIL OF ARCHAIC GREEK VASE WITH FIGURE OF SOLAR GOOSE AND SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. British Museum. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 41, fig. 15. Fig. 144. CYPRIAN POTTERY PLAQUE WITH SWASTIKA IN PANEL. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” pl. 47, fig. 40.

Fig. 145. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS IN TRIANGLES. Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 1, fig. 11. Fig. 146. DETAIL OF ATTIC VASE WITH FIGURE OF ANTELOPE (?) AND SWASTIKA. British Museum. Böhlau, Jahrbuch, 1885, p. 50, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 37, fig. 9.

Fig. 147. CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” appendix by Murray, p. 404, fig. 15. Fig. 148. TERRA COTTA FIGURINE WITH SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” p. 300, and Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d’Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 691.

Fig. 149. TERRA COTTA VASE WITH SWASTIKA AND FIGURE OF HORSE.[172] Fig. 150. BRONZE FIBULA WITH SWASTIKA AND REPRESENTATIONS OF A GOOSE AND A FISH. Bœotia, Greece. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 1265.

Professor Goodyear, and possibly others, ascribe the origin of the Swastika to the Greek fret; but this is doubtful and surely has not been proved. It is difficult, if not impossible, to procure direct evidence on the proposition. Comparisons may be made between the two signs; but this is secondary or indirect evidence, and depends largely on argument. No man is so poor in expedients that he may not argue. Goldsmith’s schoolmaster “e’en tho’ vanquished, he could argue still.” The Greek fret, once established, might easily be doubled or crossed in some of its members, thus forming a figure similar to the Swastika (fig. 139), which would serve as an ornament, but is without any of the characteristics of the Swastika as a symbol. The crossed lines in the Greek fret seem to have been altogether fortuitous. They gave it no symbolic character. It was simply a variation of the fret, and at best was rarely used, and like it, was employed only for ornament and not with any signification—not a sign of benediction, blessing, or good luck, as was the Swastika. The foundation principle of the Greek fret, so far as we can see its use, is its adaptability to form an extended ornamental band, consisting of doubled, bent, and sometimes crossed or interlaced lines, always continuous and never ending, and running between two parallel border lines. Two interlacing lines can be used, crossing each other at certain places, both making continuous meanders and together forming the ornamental band (fig. 139). In the Greek fret the two lines meandered between the two borders back and forth, up and down, but always forming a continuous line. This seems to be the foundation principle of the Greek fret. In all this requirement or foundation principle the Swastika fails. A row or band of Swastikas can not be made by continuous lines; each one is and must be separated from its fellows. The Swastika has four arms, each made by a single line which comes to an end in each quarter. This is more imperative with the meander Swastika than with the normal. If the lines be doubled on each other to be carried along to form another Swastika adjoining, in the attempt to make a band, it will be found impossible. The four lines from each of the four arms can be projected, but each will be in a different direction, and no band can be made. It is somewhat difficult to describe this, and possibly not of great need. An attempt to carry out the project of making a band of Swastikas, to be connected with each other, or to make them travel in any given direction with continuous lines, will be found impossible. Professor Goodyear attempts to show how this is done by his figure on page 96, in connection with pl. 10, fig. 9, also figs. 173 and 174 (pp. 353 and 354). These figures are given in this paper and are, respectively, Nos. 21, 25, 26, and 27. Exception is taken to the pretended line of evolution in these figures: (1) There is nothing to show any actual relationship between them. There is no evidence that they agreed either in locality or time, or that there was any unity of thought or design in the minds of their respective artists. (2) Single specimens are no evidence of custom. This is a principle of the common law which has still a good foundation, and was as applicable in those days as it is now. The transition from the spiral to the Greek fret and from the Greek fret to the Swastika can be shown only by the existence of the custom or habit of the artist to make them both in the same or adjoining epochs of time, and this is not proved by showing a single specimen. (3) If a greater number of specimens were produced, the chain of evidence would still be incomplete, for the meander of the Greek fret will, as has just been said, be found impossible of transition into the meander Swastika. It (the Swastika) does not extend itself into a band, but if spread at all, it spreads in each of the four directions (figs. 21 and 25). The transition will be found much easier from the Greek meander fret to the normal Swastika and from that to the meander Swastika than to proceed in the opposite direction. Anyone who doubts this has but to try to make the Swastika in a continuous or extended band or line (fig. 26), similar to the Greek fret.

Fig. 151. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURES OF BIRDS. Waring, “Ceramic Art In Remote Ages,” pl. 33, fig. 24, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 46, fig. 5.

Fig. 152. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE. Sunhawk, lotus, solar disk, and Swastikas. Böhlau, Jahrbuch, 1886, pl. 8; Reinach, Revue Archæologique, 1885, II, p. 360; Perrot and Chipiez, “History of Art in Phenicia and Cyprus,” II; Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 45, fig. 3.

Fig. 153. DETAIL OF GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURES OF HORSES. Thera. Leyden Museum. Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 61, fig. 4.

Fig. 154. BRONZE FIBULA WITH LARGE SWASTIKA ON SHIELD. Greece. Musée St. Germain. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 1264. ½ natural size. Fig. 155. GREEK VASE, OINOCHOË, WITH TWO PAINTED SWASTIKAS. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 1244. ¼ natural size.

Fig. 156. CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURE OF ANIMAL.[173] Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” pl. 45, fig. 36. Fig. 157. ARCHAIC GREEK POTTERY FRAGMENT. Santorin, Ancient Thera. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 42 fig. 2.

Figs. 133 and 134, from Naukratis, afford palpable evidence of the different origin of the Swastika and the Greek fret. Evidently Grecian vases, though found in Egypt, these specimens bear side by side examples of the fret and the Swastika, used contemporaneously, and both of them complete and perfect. If one had been parent of the other, they would have belonged to different generations and would not have appeared simultaneously on the same specimen. Another illustration of simultaneous use is in fig. 194, which represents an Etruscan vase[174] ornamented with bronze nail heads in the form of Swastikas, but associated with it is the design of the Greek fret, showing them to be of contemporaneous use, and therefore not, as Professor Goodyear believes, an evolution of one from the other. The specimen is in the Museum at Este, Italy.

Fig. 158. CYPRIAN VASE WITH LOTUS AND SWASTIKAS AND FIGURE OF BIRD. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 60, fig. 15.

Fig. 159. CYPRIAN VASE WITH TWO SWASTIKAS. Cesnola Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” fig. 151.

The Greek fret has been in common use in all ages and all countries adopting the Grecian civilization. Equally in all ages and countries has appeared the crossed lines which have been employed by every architect and decorator, most or many of whom had no knowledge of the Swastika, either as an ornament or as a symbol.[175]

Fig. 160. FRAGMENT OF TERRA COTTA VASE WITH SWASTIKAS, FROM RUINS OF TEMPLE AT PALEO-PAPHOS. Depth, 40 feet. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” p. 210.

Fig. 161. WOODEN BUTTON, CLASP, OR FIBULA COVERED WITH PLATES OF GOLD. Ogee Swastika, tetraskelion in center. Schliemann, “Mycenæ,” fig. 385.

Swastika in panels.—Professor Goodyear, in another place,[176] argues in a manner which tacitly admits the foregoing proposition, where, in his endeavor to establish the true home of the Swastika to be in the Greek geometric style, he says we should seek it where it appears in “the largest dimension” and in “the most prominent way.” In verification of this declaration, he says that in this style the Swastika systematically appears in panels exclusively assigned to it. But he gives only two illustrations of the Swastika in panels. These have been copied, and are shown in figs. 140 and 142. The author has added other specimens, figs. 141 to 148, from Dennis’s “Etruria,” from Waring’s “Ceramic Art,” and from Cesnola and Ohnefalsch-Richter. It might be too much to say that these are the only Swastikas in Greece appearing in panels, but it is certain that the great majority of them do not thus appear. Therefore, Professor Goodyear’s theory is not sustained, for no one will pretend that four specimens found in panels will form a rule for the great number which did not thus appear. This argument of Professor Goodyear is destructive of his other proposition that the Swastika sign originated by evolution from the meander or Greek fret, for we have seen that the latter was always used in a band and never in panels. Although the Swastika and the Greek fret have a certain similarity of appearance in that they consist of straight lines bent at right angles, and this continued many times, yet the similarity is more apparent than real; for an analysis of the motifs of both show them to have been essentially different in their use, and so in their foundation and origin.