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
Dr. Schliemann reports that the Swastika in its spiral form is represented
innumerable times in the sculptured ceiling of the Thalamos in the
treasury at Orchomenos. (See figs. 21 and 25.)
[Illustration: Fig. 169. DETAIL OF EARLY BOEOTIAN VASE. Figure of horse,
solar diagram, Artemis with geese, and Swastikas (normal and meander,
right and left). Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 61, fig. 12.]
He also reports[180] that Swastikas (turned both ways) may be seen in the
Royal Museum at Berlin incised on a balustrade relief of the hall which
surrounded the temple of Athene at Pergamos. Fig. 162 represents a spiral
Swastika with four arms crossing at right angles, the ends all turned to
the left and each one forming a spiral.
Waring[181] figures and describes a Grecian oinochoë from Camirus, Rhodes,
dating, as he says, from 700 to 500 B. C., on which is a band of
decoration similar to fig. 130. It is about 10 inches high, of cream
color, with ornamentation of dark brown. Two ibexes follow each other with
an ogee spiral Swastika between the forelegs of one.
_Meander pattern, with ends bent to right and left._--Figs. 163, 164, and
165 show the Swastika in meander pattern. Fig. 163 shows two Swastikas,
the arms of both bent to the right, one six, the other nine times. The
Swastika shown in fig. 164 is bent to the right eight times. That shown in
fig. 165 bends to the left eight times.
_Swastikas of different kinds on the same object._--The next group (figs.
167 to 176) is of importance in that it represents objects which, bearing
the normal Swastika, also show on the same object other styles of
Swastika, those turned to the left at right angles, those at other than
right angles, and those which are spiral or meander. The presence on a
single object of different forms of Swastika is considered as evidence of
their chronologic identity and their consequent relation to each other,
showing them to be all the same sign--that is, they were all Swastikas,
whether the arms were bent to the right or to the left, ogee or in curves,
at right angles or at other than right angles, in spirals or meanders.
[Illustration: Fig. 170. DETAIL OF RHODIAN VASE. Figures of geese, circles
and dots, and Swastikas (right and left). British Museum. Waring, "Ceramic
Art in Remote Ages," pl. 27, fig. 9.]
[Illustration: Fig. 171. DETAIL OF RHODIAN VASE. Geese, lotus circles, and
two Swastikas (right and left). Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 271,
fig. 145.]
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