[Illustration: Fig. 52.—Silver Brooch, Plated with Gold, in the form of a Double Sun-snake or Swastika; found in Iceland. (_Danish Arts._)] [Illustration: Fig. 53.—Gold Bowl, with Bronze Handle and Sacred Horse’s Head. (_Danish Arts._)] [Illustration: Fig. 54.—Bronze Horn found in Denmark. (_Danish Arts._)] The fylfot has been found stamped on the pottery of the lake dwellings of the Zuni, Yucatan, and other American pottery, and on objects from Iceland, Ireland, and Scandinavia. A circular form of it is seen on the gold Scandinavian ornament (Fig. 52). Whether it originally was a pure sun-sign, or whether it signified the axial rotation of the earth round the North Pole, it is full of remarkable interest, and enters more than any other symbolic sign into historic ornament generally. In India, China, and Japan, it has been much used; this was owing to the spread of the Buddhist religion in these countries. It is found on the toes of the “Footprint” of Buddha, at the Amarávati Tope, India; and owing to its great religious significance in China, Japan, and Ceylon, we find it stamped on the account books, coins and dresses of both the living and the dead, as a universal sign of good luck. [Illustration: Fig. 55.—Collar of Bronze found in Sweden. (_Scand. Arts._)] [Illustration: Fig. 56.—Danish Bronze Knives, decorated with Sun-ships and other Sacred Figures. (_Danish Arts._)] [Illustration: Fig. 57.] [Illustration: Fig. 58.] Figs. 57 and 58.—Bronze and Gold Buttons found in Women’s Graves, with the Triskele, Moon-Signs, and Sun Snakes. (_Danish Arts._) The swastika, both straight and curved-armed variety, was used indiscriminately in the decoration of objects of the Iron age, whether in bronze, iron, gold, silver, wood, or stone. It was the sign among the Romans of Jupiter Tonans, who wielded the thunder and lightning; was the sign used for Thor, the god of thunder and lightning, with the early German peoples, and the curved variety of it was used as a symbol of their highest divinity by the northern nations of Scandinavia. From this widespread use of the swastika it is conjectured that it is an Aryan symbol, brought by the people of the Bronze age from their primitive home in the plateau of Central Asia. CHAPTER V. THE IRON AGE.