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
It appears to me that the priests and priestesses, also the boys who
performed the services in the sacred places, were in the habit of
burning or tattooing Swastikas upon their arms. * * * In 1885, among
the votive offerings found in one of the sacred places dedicated to
Aphrodite-Astoret, near Idalium, was a stone statuette, representing
the young Adonis Kinyras in a squatting posture, with the Swastika
tattooed or painted in red color upon his naked arm.
[Illustration: Fig. 182. GREEK STATUE OF APHRODITE-ARIADNE. Six Swastikas
(four right and two left). Polistis Chrysokon. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull.
Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 677, fig. 10.]
And, says Richter, when, later on, the custom of tattooing had
disappeared, they placed the Swastika on the sacerdotal garments. He has
found in a Greek tomb in 1885, near Polistis Chrysokon, two statuettes
representing female dancers in the service of Aphrodite-Ariadne, one of
which (fig. 182) bore six or more Swastikas. In other cases, says he (p.
678), the _Croix cantonnée_ (the _Croix swasticale_ of Zmigrodzki)
replaced the Swastika on the garments, and he cites the statue of Hercules
strangling the lion in the presence of Athena, whose robe is ornamented
with the _Croix cantonnée_. He repeats that the two signs of the cross
represent the idea of light, sun, sacrifice, rain, storm, and the seasons.
EUROPE.
BRONZE AGE.
Prehistoric archæologists claim that bronze was introduced into Europe in
prehistoric times from the extreme Orient. The tin mines of the peninsula
of Burma and Siam, with their extension into China on the north, Malacca
and the islands of the archipelago on the south, are known to have been
worked in extremely ancient times and are believed to have furnished the
tin for the first making of bronze. The latter may not be susceptible of
proof, but everything is consistent therewith. After it became known that
copper and tin would make bronze, the discovery of tin would be greatly
extended, and in the course of time the tin mines of Spain, Britain, and
Germany might be opened. A hundred and more prehistoric bronze foundries
have been discovered in western Europe and tens of thousands of
prehistoric bronze implements. If bronze came originally from the extreme
Orient, and the Swastika belonged there also, and as objects of bronze
belonging to prehistoric times and showing connection with the Orient,
like the tintinnabulum (fig. 29) have been found in the Swiss lake
dwellings of prehistoric times, it is a fair inference that the Swastika
mark found on the same objects came also from the Orient. This inference
is strengthened by the manufacture and continuous use of the Swastika on
both bronze and pottery, until it practically covered, and is to be found
over, all Europe wherever the culture of bronze prevailed. Nearly all
varieties of the Swastika came into use during the Bronze Age. The objects
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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