The Swastika Part 12

_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 ident.i.ty 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 171. DETAIL OF RHODIAN VASE. Geese, lotus circles, and two Swastikas (right and left). Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 271, fig. 145.]

Many examples of vases similar to fig. 172 are shown in the London, Paris, and New York museums, and in other collections. (See figs. 149, 159.) Fig.

174 shows an Attic painted vase (_Lebes_) of the Archaic period, from Athens. It is a pale yellowish ground, probably the natural color, with figures in maroon. It belongs to the British Museum. It bears on the front side five Swastikas, all of different styles; three turn to the right, two to the left. The main arms cross at right angles, but the ends of four are bent at right angles, while one is curved (ogee). Three have the ends bent (at right angles) four times, making a meander form, while two make only one bend. They seem not to be placed with any reference to each other, or to any other object, and are scattered over the field as chance or luck might determine. A specimen of Swastika interesting to prehistoric archaeologists is that on a vase from Cyprus (Musee St. Germain, No.

21537), on which is represented an arrowhead, stemmed, barbed, and suspended by its points between the Swastika.[182]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 172. GREEK VASE OF TYPICAL RHODIAN STYLE. Ibex, lotus, geese, and six Swastikas (normal, meander, and ogee, all left). Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," p. 251, pl. 39.[183]]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 173. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE. Deer, solar diagrams, and three Swastikas (single, double, and meander, right). Melos. Conze, "Meliosche Thongefa.s.se," and Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 60, fig. 8.]

Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter presented a paper before the Societe d'Anthropologie in Paris, December 6, 1888, reported in the Bulletin of that year (pp. 668-681). It was ent.i.tled "La Croix gammee et la Croix cantonnee en Chypre." (The _Croix gammee_ is the Swastika, while the _Croix cantonnee_ is the cross with dots, the _Croix swasticale_ of Zmigrodzki.) In this paper the author describes his finding the Swastika during his excavations into prehistoric Cyprus. On the first page of his paper the following statement appears:

The Swastika comes from India as an ornament in form of a cone (_conique_) of metal, gold, silver, or bronze gilt, worn on the ears (see G. Perrot: "Histoire de l'Art," III, p. 562 et fig. 384), and nose-rings (see S. Reinach: "Chronique d'Orient," 3{e} serie, t. IV, 1886). I was the first to make known the nose-ring worn by the G.o.ddess Aphrodite-Astarte, even at Cyprus. In the Indies the women still wear these ornaments in their nostrils and ears. The fellahin of Egypt also wear similar jewelry; but as Egyptian art gives us no example of the usage of these ornaments in antiquity, it is only from the Indies that the Phenicians could have borrowed them. The nose-ring is unknown in the antiquity of all countries which surrounded the island of Cyprus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 174. ARCHAIC GREEK VASE WITH FIVE SWASTIKAS OF FOUR DIFFERENT FORMS. Athens. Birch, "History of Ancient Pottery," quoted by Waring in "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 41, fig. 15; Dennis, "The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," I, p. 91.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 175. DETAIL OF ARCHAIC BOEOTIAN VASE. Serpents, crosses, and Swastikas (normal, right, left, and meander). Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 60, fig. 9.]

The first pages of his memoir are employed in demonstrating that the specimens of the Swastika found in Cyprus, the most of which are set forth in this paper (figs. 177-182), show a Phenician influence; and according to his theory demonstrate their migration or importation. He does not specify the evidence on which he bases his a.s.sertion of Phenician influence in Cyprus, except in one or two particulars. Speaking of the specimen shown in fig. 177 of the present paper, he says:

It represents the sacred palm under which Apollo, the G.o.d of light, was born. * * * At Cyprus the palm did not appear only with the Phenicians; it was not known prior to that time (p. 674).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 176. ATTIC VASE FOR PERFUME, WITH CROIX SWASTICALE AND TWO FORMS OF SWASTIKAS. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 673, fig. 4.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 177. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE. Swastikas with palm tree, sacred to Apollo. Citium, Cyprus. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc.

d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 673, fig. 3.]

The design shown in fig. 178 he describes as representing two birds in the att.i.tude of adoration before a Swastika, all being figured on a Greek cup of the style Dipylon.[184]

Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter adds:

On the vases of Dipylon the Swastikas are generally transformed into other ornaments, mostly meanders. But this is not the rule in Cyprus.

The Swastika disappeared from there as it came, in its sacred form, with the Phenician influence, with the Phenician inscriptions on the vases, with the concentric circles without central points or tangents.

He says[185] that the Swastika as well as the "Croix cantonnee" (with points or dots), while possibly not always the equivalent of the solar disk, zigzag lightning, or the double hatchet, yet are employed together and are given the same signification, and frequently replace each other.

It is his opinion[186] that the Swastika in Cyprus had nearly always a signification more or less religious, although it may have been used as an ornament to fill empty s.p.a.ces. His interpretation of the Swastika in Cyprus is that it will signify _tour a tour_ the storm, the lightning, the sun, the light, the seasons--sometimes one, sometimes another of these significations--and that its form lends itself easily (_facilement_) to the solar disk, to the fire wheel, and to the sun chariot. In support of this, he cites a figure (fig. 179) taken from Cesnola,[187] in which the wheels of the chariot are decorated with four Swastikas displayed in each of the four quarters. The chief personage on the car he identifies as the G.o.d of Apollo-Resef, and the decoration on his s.h.i.+eld represents the solar disk. He is at once the G.o.d of war and also the G.o.d of light, which identifies him with Helios. The other personage is Herakles-Mecquars, the right hand of Apollo, both of them heroes of the sun.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 178. CYPRIAN VASE WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS AND SWASTIKA IN PANEL. Musee St. Germain. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 674, fig. 6.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 179. CHARIOT OF APOLLO-RESEF. Sun symbol(?) on s.h.i.+eld and four Swastikas (two right and two left) on quadrants of chariot wheels. Cesnola, "Salaminia," p. 240, fig. 226, and Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 675, fig. 7.]

The supreme G.o.ddess of the Isle of Cyprus was Aphrodite-Astarte,[188]

whose presence with a preponderating Phenician influence can be traced back to the period of the age of iron, her images bearing signs of the Swastika, being, according to Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter, found in Cyprus. In fig. 180 the statue of this G.o.ddess is shown, which he says was found by himself in 1884 at Curium. It bears four Swastikas, two on the shoulders and two on the forearms. Fig. 181 represents a centaur found by him at the same time, on the right arm of which is a Swastika painted in black, as in the foregoing statue.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 180. TERRA-COTTA STATUE OF THE G.o.dDESS APHRODITE-ASTARTE WITH FOUR SWASTIKAS.[189] Curium, Cyprus.

Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 676, fig. 8.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 181. CYPRIAN CENTAUR WITH ONE SWASTIKA. Cesnola, "Salaminia," p. 243, fig. 230; Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 676, fig. 9.]

We have found, in the course of this paper, many statues of human figures bearing the mark of the Swastika on some portion of their garments. M.

Ohnefalsch-Richter, on page 677, gives the following explanation thereof:

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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 cantonnee_ (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 cantonnee_. 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 archaeologists 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 on which it was placed may have been different in different localities, and so also another variety of form may have prevailed in a given locality; but, subject to these exceptions, the Swastika came into general use throughout the countries wherein the Bronze Age prevailed. As we have seen, on the hill of Hissarlik the Swastika is found princ.i.p.ally on the spindle-whorl; in Greece and Cyprus, on the pottery vases; in Germany, on the ceintures of bronze; in Scandinavia, on weapons and on toilet and dress ornaments. In Scotland and Ireland it was mostly on sculptured stones, which are many times themselves ancient Celtic crosses. In England, France, and Etruria, the Swastika appears on small bronze ornaments, princ.i.p.ally fibulae. Different forms of the Swastika, i. e., those to the right, left, square, ogee, curved, spiral and meander, triskelion and tetraskelion, have been found on the same object, thereby showing their inter-relations.h.i.+p. No distinction is apparent between the arms bent to the right or to the left. This difference, noted by Prof. Max Muller, seems to fail altogether.

Greg says:[190]

About 500 to 600 B. C., the fylfot, (Swastika) curiously enough begins to disappear as a favorite device of early Greek art, and is rarely, if ever, seen on the regular Etruscan vase.

This indicates that the period of the use of the Swastika during the Bronze Age in Europe lay back of the period of its disappearance in the time of early Greek art, and that it was of higher antiquity than would otherwise be suspected.

Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter says:[191]

The Swastika makes absolute default in Cyprus during all the age of bronze and in all its separate divisions according as the vases were decorated with intaglio or relief, or were painted.

_Etruria and Italy._--The Etruscans were a prehistoric people. The country was occupied during the two ages of stone, Paleolithic and Neolithic, and during the Bronze Age. The Etruscans were probably the descendants of the Bronze Age people. The longest continued geographical discussion the world has heard was as to _who were_ the Etruscans, and _whence_ or _by what_ route did they come to their country? It was opened by Herodotus and Dionysius Halicarna.s.sus in the fourth century B. C.; while Dr. Brinton and the late President Welling have made the latest contributions thereto. The culture of the Etruscans was somewhat similar to that of the Bronze Age peoples, and many of the implements had great resemblance, but with sufficient divergence to mark the difference between them. There were different stages of culture among the Etruscans, as can be easily and certainly determined from their tombs, modes of burial, pottery, etc.

The Swastika appears to have been employed in all these epochs or stages.

It was undoubtedly used during the Bronze Age, and in Italy it continued throughout the Etruscan and into the Roman and Christian periods.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 183. HUT URN IN THE VATICAN MUSEUM. "Burning altar"

mark a.s.sociated with Swastikas. Etruria (Bronze Age).]

While it may be doubtful if any specimen of Swastika can be identified as having belonged to the Neolithic Age in Europe, there can be no doubt that it was in common use during the Bronze Age. Professor Goodyear gives it as his opinion, and in this he may be correct, that the earliest specimens of Swastika of which identification can be made are on the hut urns of central Italy. These have been considered as belonging definitely to the Bronze Age in that country. Fig. 183 is a representation of one of these hut urns. It shows upon its roof several specimens of Swastika, as will be apparent from examination. There are other figures, incised and in relief.

One of them is the celebrated "burning altar" mark of Dr. Schliemann. This specimen was found in the Via Appia near Rome, and is exhibited in the Vatican Museum. Similar specimens have been found in other parts of Etruria. The author saw in the Munic.i.p.al Museum at Corneto many of them, which had been excavated from the neighboring cemetery of the prehistoric city of Corneto-Tarquinii. They were of pottery, but made as if to represent rude huts of skin, stretched on cross poles, in general appearance not unlike the cane and rush conical cabins used to this day by the peasants around Rome. They belonged to the Bronze Age, and antedated the Etruscan civilization. This was demonstrated by the finds at Corneto-Tarquinii. Tombs to the number of about 300, containing them, were found, mostly in 1880-81, at a lower level than, and were superseded by, the Etruscan tombs. They contained the weapons, tools, and ornaments peculiar to the Bronze Age--swords, hatchets, pins, fibulae, bronze and pottery vases, etc., the characteristics of which were different from Etruscan objects of similar purpose, so they could be satisfactorily identified and segregated. The hut urns were receptacles for the ashes of the cremated dead, which, undisturbed, are to be seen in the museum. The vases forming part of this grave furniture bore the Swastika mark; three have two Swastikas, one three, one four, and another no less than eight.

Dennis figures a hut urn from Alba Longa,[192] and another from the Alban Mount.[193] He says (note 1):

These remarkable urns were first found in 1817 at Montecucco, near Marino, and at Monte Crescenzio, near the Lago de Castello, beneath a stratum of _peperino_ (tufa) 18 inches thick. They were embedded in a yellowish volcanic ash and rested on a lower and earlier stratum of _peperino_.[194]

Curiously enough, the three or four p.r.o.nged 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 relations.h.i.+p between Swastika and the "burning altar" sign, but a.s.signs 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 a.s.sociates the Swastika with the "burning altar" sign in the Etruscan country, as well as on the hill of Hissarlik and in other localities.