Curiously enough, the three or four pronged mark, called "burning altar" by Dr. Schliemann, is on both hut urns in Dennis's "Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria." Dr. Schliemann argues strongly in favor of the relationship between Swastika and the "burning altar" sign, but assigns no other reason than the similarity of the marks on the two objects. He appears unable, in "Ilios," to cite any instance of the Swastika being found on the hut urns in connection with the "burning altar" sign, but he mentions the Swastika five times repeated on one of the hut urns in the Etruscan collection in the museum of the Vatican at Rome.[195] The photograph of the hut urn from the Vatican (fig. 183) supplies the missing link in Schliemann's evidence. The roof of the hut urn bears the "burning altar" mark (if it be a burning altar, as claimed), which is in high relief (as it is in the Dennis specimens), and was wrought in the clay by the molder when the hut was made. Such of the other portions of the roof as are in sight show sundry incised lines which, being deciphered, are found to be Swastikas or parts of them. The parallelogram in the front contains a cross and has the appearance of a labyrinth, but it is not. The other signs or marks, however, represent Swastikas, either in whole or in part. This specimen completes the proof cited by Schliemann, and associates the Swastika with the "burning altar" sign in the Etruscan country, as well as on the hill of Hissarlik and in other localities. Dennis supposes the earliest Etruscan vases, called by many different names, to date from the twelfth century B. C. to 540 B. C.,[196] the latter being the epoch of Theodoros of Samos, whose improvements marked an epoch in the culture of the country. He says: These vases were adorned with annular bands, zigzag, waves, meanders, concentric circles, hatched lines, Swastikas, and other geometric patterns. A fragment of Archaic Greek pottery is reported by Rochette from the necropolis of Cumæ, in the campagna of Italy, and is shown in fig. 184. Rochette reports it as an example of a very early period, believed by him to have been Phenician. When we consider the rarity of Phenician pottery in Italy compared with the great amount of Greek pottery found there, and that the Phenicians are not known to have employed the Swastika, this, combined with the difficulty of determining the place of origin of such a fragment, renders it more likely to have been Greek than Phenician. A reason apparently moving Rochette to this decision was the zigzag ornamentation, which he translated to be a Phenician sign for water; but this pattern was used many times and in many places without having any such meaning, and is no proof of his proposition. [Illustration: Fig. 184. FRAGMENT OF ARCHAIC GREEK POTTERY WITH THREE SWASTIKAS. Cumæ, Italy. Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 42, fig. 1.]