The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric TimesWilson, Thomas
Religion
The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times
Wilson, Thomas
Industries, Primitive; Swastikas; Symbolism
The consideration of the leaden idol of Hissarlik, with a Swastika, as
though for good luck, recalled to the author similar plaques in his
department from Brazil. Some are of common yellow ware, others were finer,
were colored red and rubbed smooth and hard, but were without decoration.
The specimen shown in pl. 18 (upper figure) was from Marajo, Brazil,
collected by Mr. E. M. Brigham. It is of light gray, slip washed, and
decorated with pale red or yellow paint in bands, lines, parallels,
geometric figures. The specimen shown in the lower figure of the same
plate, from the Caneotires River, Brazil, was collected by Prof. J. B.
Steere. The body color, clay, and the decoration paint are much the same
as the former. The ornamentation is principally by two light lines laid
parallel and close so as to form a single line, and is of the same
geometric character as the incised decoration ornament on other pieces
from Marajo Island. Midway from top to bottom, near the outside edges, are
two Swastikas. They are about five-eighths of an inch in size, are turned
at right angles, one to the right and the other to the left. These may
have been a charm signifying good fortune in bearing children. (See pp.
830-832.)
These specimens were submitted by the author to the Brazilian minister,
Señor Mendonça, himself an archæologist and philologist of no small
capacity, who recognized these objects as in use in ancient times among
the aborigines of his country. The name by which they are known in the
aboriginal language is _Tambeao_ or _Tamatiatang_, according to the
dialects of different provinces. The later dialect name for apron is
reported as _tunga_, and the minister makes two remarks having a possible
bearing on the migration of the race: (1) The similarity of _tunga_ with
the last syllable of the longer word, _atang_, and (2) that _tunga_ is
essentially an African word from the west coast. Whether this piece of
dress so thoroughly savage, with a possible ceremonial meaning relating to
sex or condition, with its wonderful similarity of names, might not have
migrated in time of antiquity from the west coast of Africa to the
promontory of Brazil on the east coast of America where the passage is
narrowest, is one of those conundrums which the prehistoric anthropologist
is constantly encountering and which he is usually unable to solve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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