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
There have been numerous European or Catholic crosses, as well as many
other objects of European manufacture or objects of civilized types, found
among the Indians. There have been silver crosses found with images of the
Virgin thereon, with Latin inscriptions, or of Roman letters; there have
been glass beads, iron arrowheads, and divers other objects found in
Indian graves which bore indubitable evidence of contact with the whites,
and no one with any archæological experience need be deceived into the
belief that these were aboriginal or pre-Columbian manufacture. As a
general rule, the line of demarkation between objects of Indian
manufacture and those made by the whites is definite, and no practiced eye
will mistake the one for the other. There may be exceptions, as where the
Indian has lived with the whites or a white man with the Indians, or where
an object is made with intent to deceive. In such cases one may have more
trouble in determining the origin of the object.
There were many Indians who died and were buried within a century past,
whose graves might contain many objects of white man's work. Black Hawk
and Red Jacket are examples, and, possibly, King Philip. Indian graves
have been opened in New England and New York containing the gun or
firelock of the occupant of the grave buried with him, and that this was
evidence of European contact there can be no doubt. So there have been
hundreds, possibly thousands, of Indians buried since the Columbian
discovery down to within the last decade whose graves contain white man's
tools or implements. But no person with any archæological experience need
be deceived by these things. The theory that the Latin or Greek crosses or
Swastikas shown on these gorgets, disks, and pottery furnish evidence of
contact by the aborigines with Europeans in post-Columbian times is
without foundation and inadmissible.
DECORATIVE FORMS NOT OF THE CROSS, BUT ALLIED TO THE SWASTIKA.
COLOR STAMPS FROM MEXICO AND VENEZUELA.
[Illustration: Figs. 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, and 342. TERRA-COTTA COLOR
STAMPS WITH DESIGNS SIMILAR TO THE SWASTIKA. Mexico. Cat. Nos. 99124,
99127, 27887, 99115, 99118, 99122, U. S. N. M.]
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