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 prehistoric objects described in the foregoing chapter are not the
only ones common to both Europe and America. Related to the spindle-whorls
and bobbins is the art of weaving, and it is perfectly susceptible of
demonstration that this art was practiced in the two hemispheres in
prehistoric times. Woven fabrics have been found in the Swiss lake
dwellings, in Scandinavia, and in nearly all parts of Europe. They
belonged to the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
[Illustration: Fig. 372. VIEW SHOWING BOTH ENDS OF A BOBBIN(?) OF
FINE-GRAINED SANDSTONE. Maysville, Kentucky. Cat. No. 16747, U. S. N. M.]
Figs. 373 and 374 illustrate textile fabrics in the Bronze Age. Both
specimens are from Denmark, and the National Museum possesses another
specimen (Cat. No. 136615) in all respects similar. While prehistoric
looms may not have been found in Europe to be compared with the looms of
modern savages in America, yet these specimens of cloth, with the hundreds
of others found in the Swiss lake dwellings, afford the most indubitable
proof of the use of the looms in both countries during prehistoric times.
Complementary to this, textile fabrics have been found in America, from
the Pueblo country of Utah and Colorado, south through Mexico, Central and
South America, and of necessity the looms with which they were made were
there also. It is not meant to be said that the looms of the two
hemispheres have been found, or that they or the textile fabrics are
identical. The prehistoric looms have not been found in Europe, and those
in America may have been affected by contact with the white man. Nor is it
meant to be said that the textile fabrics of the two hemispheres are
alike in thread, stitch, or pattern. But these at best are only details.
The great fact remains that the prehistoric man of the two hemispheres had
the knowledge to spin fiber into thread, to wind it on bobbins, and to
weave it into fabrics; and whatever differences there may have been in
pattern, thread, or cloth, they were finally and substantially the same
art, and so are likely to have been the product of the same invention.
While it is not the intention to continue this examination among the
prehistoric objects of the two hemispheres in order to show their
similarity and thus prove migration, contact, or communication, yet it may
be well to mention some of them, leaving the argument or proof to a future
occasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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