Fig. 35.BRONZE PIN-HEADFROM CHEITHAN-THAGH.De Morgan, “Au Caucase,”fig. 177.
A district of Asia Minor forming the southwestern quarter of Phrygia. The origin of its name and inhabitants, the Lycaones, is lost in obscurity. * * * Our first acquaintance with this region is in the relation of the expedition of the younger Cyprus. Its limits varied at different times. At first it extended eastward from Iconium 23 geographical miles, and was separated from Cilicia on the south by the range of Mount Taurus, comprehending a large portion of what in later times was termed Cataonia.
Count Goblet d’Alviella,[128]quoting Perrot and Chipiez,[129]states that the Hittites introduced the Swastika on a bas-relief of Ibriz, Lycaonia, where it forms a border of the robe of a king or priest offering a sacrifice to a god.
ARMENIA.
Fig. 36.BRONZE PIN-HEADFROM AKTHALA.De Morgan, “AuCaucase,” fig. 178.
Fig. 37.SWASTIKA MARKON BLACK POTTERY.Cheithan-thagh.De Morgan, “AuCaucase,” fig. 179.
M. J. de Morgan (the present director of the Gizeh Museum at Cairo), under the direction of the French Government, made extensive excavations and studies into the prehistoric antiquities and archæology of Russian Armenia. His report is entitled “Le Premier Âge de Métaux dans l’Arménie Russe.”[130]He excavated a number of prehistoric cemeteries, and found therein various forms of crosses engraved on ceintures, vases, and medallions. The Swastika, though present, was more rare. He found it on the heads of two large bronze pins (figs.35and36) and on one piece of pottery (fig. 37) from the prehistoric tombs. The bent arms are all turned to the left, and would be the Suavastika of Prof. Max Müller.
CAUCASUS.
In Caucasus, M. E. Chantre[131]found the Swastika in great purity of form.Fig. 38represents portions of a bronze plaque from that country, used on a ceinture or belt. Another of slightly different style, but with square cross and arms bent at right angles, is represented in his pl. 8, fig. 5. These belonged to the first age of iron, and much of the art was intricate.[132]It represented animals as well as all geometric forms, crosses, circles (concentric and otherwise), spirals, meanders, chevrons, herring bone, lozenges, etc. These were sometimes cast in the metal, at other times repoussé, and again were engraved, and occasionally these methods were employed together.Fig. 39shows another form, frequently employed and suggested as a possible evolution of the Swastika, from the same locality and same plate.Fig. 40represents signs reported by Waring[133]as from Asia Minor, which he credits, without explanation, to Ellis’s “Antiquities of Heraldry.”
The specimen shown infig. 41is reported by Waring,[134]quoting Rzewusky,[135]as one of the several branding marks used on Circassian horses for identification.
Fig. 38.FRAGMENT OF BRONZE CEINTURE.Swastika repoussé. Necropolis of Koban, Caucasus.Chantre, “Le Caucase,” pl. 11, fig. 3.
Fig. 39.BRONZE AGRAFE OR BELT PLATE.Triskelion in spiral. Koban, Caucasus.Chantre, “Le Caucase,” pl. 11, fig. 4.
Fig. 40.SWASTIKA SIGNS FROM ASIA MINOR.Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,”pl. 41, figs. 5 and 6.
Fig. 41.BRAND FOR HORSESIN CIRCASSIA.Ogee Swastika,tetraskelion.Waring,“Ceramic Art inRemote Ages,”pl. 42, fig. 20c.
Mr. Frederick Remington, the celebrated artist and literateur, has an article, “Cracker Cowboy in Florida,”[136]wherein he discourses of the forgery of brands on cattle in that country. One of his genuine brands is a circle with a small cross in the center. The forgery consists in elongating each arm of the cross and turning it with a scroll, forming an ogee Swastika (fig. 13d), which, curiously enough, is practically the same brand used on Circassian horses (fig. 41). Max Ohnefalsch-Richter[137]says that instruments of copper (audumbaroasih) are recommended in the Atharva-Veda to make the Swastika, which represents the figure 8; and thus he attempts to account for the use of that mark branded on the cows in India (supra,p. 772), on the horses in Circassia (fig. 41), and said to have been used in Arabia.
ASIA MINOR—TROY (HISSARLIK).
Many specimens of the Swastika were found by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of Troy, principally on spindle whorls, vases, and bijoux of precious metal. Zmigrodzki[138]made from Dr. Schliemann’s great atlas the following classification of the objects found at Troy, ornamented with the Swastika and its related forms:
Fifty-five of pure form; 114 crosses with the four dots, points or alleged nail holes (Croix swasticale); 102 with three branches or arms (triskelion); 86 with five branches or arms; 63 with six branches or arms; total, 420.
Zmigrodzki continues his classification by adding those which haverelation to the Swastika thus: Eighty-two representing stars; 70 representing suns; 42 representing branches of trees or palms; 15 animals non-ferocious, deer, antelope, hare, swan, etc.; total, 209 objects. Many of these were spindle whorls.
Fig. 42.FRAGMENT OFLUSTROUSBLACK POTTERY.Swastika, right.Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann,“Ilios,” fig. 247.
Dr. Schliemann, in his works, “Troja” and “Ilios,” describes at length his excavations of these cities and his discoveries of the Swastika on many objects. His reports are grouped under titles of the various cities, first, second, third, etc., up to the seventh city, counting always from the bottom, the first being deepest and oldest. The same system will be here pursued. The first and second cities were 45 to 52 feet (13 to 16 meters) deep; the third, 23 to 33 feet (7 to 10 meters) deep; the fourth city, 13 to 17.6 feet (4 to 5½ meters) deep; the fifth city, 7 to 13 feet (2 to 4 meters) deep; the sixth was the Lydian city of Troy, and the seventh city, the Greek Ilium, approached the surface.
First and Second Cities.—But few whorls were found in the first and second cities[139]and none of these bore the Swastika mark, while thousands were found in the third, fourth, and fifth cities, many of which bore the Swastika mark. Those of the first city, if unornamented, have a uniform lustrous black color and are the shape of a cone (fig. 55) or of two cones joined at the base (figs.52and71). Both kinds were found at 33 feet and deeper. Others from the same city were ornamented by incised lines rubbed in with white chalk, in which case they were flat.[140]In the second city the whorls were smaller than in the first. They were all of a black color and their incised ornamentation was practically the same as those from the upper cities.[141]
Zmigrodzki congratulated himself on having discovered among Schliemann’s finds what he believed to be the oldest representation of the Swastika of which we had reliable knowledge. It was a fragment of a vase (fig. 42) of the lustrous black pottery peculiar to the whorls of the first and second cities. But Zmigrodzki was compelled to recede, which he did regretfully, when Schliemann, in a later edition, inserted the footnote (p. 350) saying, that while he had found this (with a companion piece) at a great depth in his excavations, and had attributed them to the first city, yet, on subsequent examination, he had become convinced that they belonged to the third city.
The Swastika, turned both ways[S]and[Z], was frequent in the third, fourth, and fifth cities.
The following specimens bearing the Swastika mark are chosen, out of the many specimens in Schliemann’s great album, in order to make a fair representation of the various kinds, both of whorls and ofSwastikas. They are arranged in the order of cities, the depth being indicated in feet.
Fig. 45.SPINDLE-WHORL WITH TWO SWASTIKAS.Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1919.
Fig. 46.SPINDLE-WHORL WITHTWO SWASTIKAS.Depth, 28 feet.Schliemann,“Ilios,” fig. 1826.
The Third, or Burnt, City(23 to 33 feet deep).—The spindle-whorl shown infig. 43contains two Swastikas and two crosses.[142]Of the one Swastika, two arms are bent to the right at right angles, while the other two are bent to the right in curves. The other Swastika has but two bends, one at right angles, the other curved, both to the right. The specimen shown infig. 44has two Swastikas, in one of which the four arms are bent at right angles to the left. The entire figure is traced in double lines, one heavy and one light, as though to represent edges or shadows. The second Swastika has its ends bent at an obtuse angle to the left, and at the extremities the lines taper to a point. The whorl shown infig. 45is nearly spherical, with two Swastikas in the upper part. The ends of the four arms in both are bent at right angles, one to the right, the other to the left.Fig. 46represents a spindle-whorl with two irregular Swastikas; but one arm is bent at right angles and all the arms and points are uncertain and of unequal lengths. The rest of the field is covered with indefinite and inexplicable marks, of which the only ones noteworthy are points or dots, seven in number. Infig. 47the top is surrounded by a line of zigzagor dog-tooth ornaments. Within this field, on the upper part and equidistant from the central hole, are three Swastikas, the ends of all of which turn to the left, and but one at right angles. All three have one or more ends bent, not at any angle, but in a curve or hook, making an ogee.Fig. 48shows a large whorl with two or three Swastikas on its upper surface in connection with several indefinite marks apparently without meaning. The dots are interspersed over the field, the Swastikas all bent to the right, but with uncertain lines and at indefinite angles. In one of them the main line forming the cross is curved toward the central hole; in another, the ends are both bent in the same direction—that is, pointing to the periphery of the whorl.Fig. 49shows a sphere or globe (see figs.75,88) divided by longitudinal lines into four segments, which are again divided by an equatorial line. These segments contain marks or dots and circles, while one segment contains a normal Swastika turned to the left. This terra-cotta ball has figured in a peculiar degree in the symbolic representation of the Swastika. Greg says of it:[143]
We see on one hemisphere the[Z]standing for Zeus (= Indra) the sky god, and on the other side a rude representation of a sacred (somma) tree; a very interesting and curious western perpetuation of the original idea and a strong indirect proof of the[Z]standing for the emblem of the sky god.
Fig. 47.SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE SWASTIKAS.Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1851.
Fig. 48.SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SWASTIKAS.Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1982.
Fig. 49.SPHERE DIVIDED INTO EIGHTSEGMENTS, ONE OF WHICHCONTAINS A SWASTIKA.Schliemann, “Ilios,”fig. 1999.
Fig. 50represents one of the biconical spindle-whorls with various decorations on the two sides, longitudinal lines interspersed with dots, arcs of concentric circles arranged in three parallels, etc. On one of these sides is a normal Swastika, the arms crossing at right angles, the ends bent at right angles to the left.The specimen shown infig. 51contains four perfect Swastikas and two inchoate and uncertain. Both of the latter have been damaged by breaking the surface. The four Swastikas all have their arms bent to the right; some are greater than at right angles, and one arm is curved. Several ends are tapered to a point.Fig. 52shows a whorl of biconical form. It contains two Swastikas, the main arms of which are ogee forms, crossing each other at the center at nearly right angles, the ogee ends curving to the right. Infig. 53the entire field of the upper surface is filled with, or occupied by, a Greek cross, in the center of which is the central hole of the whorl, while on each of the four arms is represented a Swastika, the main arms all crossing at right angles, the ends all bent to the right at a slightly obtuse angle. Each of these bent ends tapers to a point, some with slight curves and a small flourish. (See figs.33and34for reference to this flourish.) The specimen shown infig. 54has a center field in its upper part, of which the decoration consists of incised parallel lines forming segments of circles, repeated in each one of the four quarters of the field. The center hole is surrounded by two concentric rings of incised lines. In one of these spaces is a single Swastika; its main arms crossing at right angles, two of its ends bent to the left at right angles, the other two in the same direction and curved.
Fig. 50.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SWASTIKA.Schliemann, “Ilios,” Fig. 1949.
The Fourth City(13.2 to 17.6 feet deep).—Schliemann says:[144]
We find among the successors of the burnt city the same triangular idols; the same primitive bronze battle-axes; the same terra-cotta vases, with or without tripod feet; the same double-handled goblets (σέπα ὰμφικύπελλα); the same battle-axes of jade, porphyry, and diorite; the same rude stone hammers, and saddle querns of trachyte. * * * The number of rude stone hammers and polished stone axes are fully thrice as large as in the third city, while the masses of shells and cocklesaccumulated in the débris of the houses are so stupendous that they baffle all description. The pottery is coarser and of a ruder fabric than in the third city. * * * There were also found in the fourth city many needles of bone for female handiwork, boar tusks, spit rests of mica schist, whetstones of slate, porphyry, etc., of the usual form, hundreds of small silex saws, and some knives of obsidian. Stone whorls, which are so abundant at Mycenæ, are but rarely found here; all of those which occur are, according to Mr. Davis, of steatite. On the other hand, terra-cotta whorls, with or without incised ornamentation, are found by thousands; their forms hardly vary from those in the third (the burnt) city, and the same may be generally said of their incised ornamentation. * * * The same representation of specimens of whorls are given as in the third city, and the same observations apply.
Fig. 59.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE OGEE SWASTIKAS.Depth, 13½ feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1990.
Fig. 55shows a simple cone, the upper surface being flat and without other decoration than three Swastikas equidistant from the hole and from each other, all made by the two crossed ogee lines with ends curved to the right. This specimen is much like that ofFig. 71(Madam Schliemann collection in the U. S. National Museum, Cat. No. 149704).Fig. 56shows a remarkable spindle-whorl. Its marks greatly excited the interest of Dr. Schliemann, and he devoted much space to the discussion of these and similar characters. The whorl is in the form of a cone. It bears upon its conical surface four Swastikas, the ends of three of which bend to the right and one to the left. There are but two of these ends which bend at right angles. Most of them are at an obtuse angle, while the ends of two are curved. Some taper to a point and finish with a slight flourish. The other marks which so interested Dr. Schliemann were the chevron ornament (zigzag), drawn in parallel lines, which, he strongly argued, and fortified with many authorities, represented lightning. The second series of marks he called a “burning altar.” This assertion he also fortified with authorities and withillustrations of a similar sign from different countries. (Seefig. 101.) The third series of marks represented an animal, name and character unknown, with a head or tusks with two large branching horns or ears, a straight back, a stiff but drooping tail, four legs, and two rows of the remarkable dots—seven in one, six in the other—placed over the back of the animal. (See figs.99and100.)Fig. 57represents another cone-shaped whorl, the flat surface of which is engraved with one perfect Swastika, the two arms crossing each other at right angles and the two ends bending at right angles to the right; the other two are curved, also to the right. Two of the other figures Dr. Schliemann calls Swastikas, although they are uncertain in some of their arms and angles. The fourth character he imagined to be an inchoate or attempted Swastika.Fig. 58shows a biconical whorl with curious and inexplicable characters. One of them forms a crude Swastika, which, while the main arms cross at right angles the ends are bent at uncertain angles, three to the left and one to the right. These characters are so undetermined that it is doubtful if they could have had any signification, either ornamental or otherwise.Fig. 59is almost conical, the flat surface thereof being only slightly raised at the center. It is much the same form as the whorls shown in figs.55and71. The nearly flat surface is the top, and on it, equidistant from the center hole and from each other, are three ogee Swastikas of double lines, with their ends all curved to the right. In the alternate spaces are small incised circles, with dots in the centers. Infig. 60a biconicalwhorl is shown. It has three of the circle segments marked in equilateral positions, with three or four parallel lines, after the style shown inFig. 54. In the spaces are two Swastikas, in both of which the two main arms cross at right angles. Some of the ends bend at a right, and others at an obtuse, angle. In one of the Swastikas the bent ends turn toward each other, forming a rude figure 8. The specimen shown infig. 61is biconical, but much flattened; it contains five ogee Swastikas, of which the ends of four bend to the right and one to the left. In an interval between them is one of the burning altars.Fig. 62shows three Swastikas with double parallel lines. The main arms cross each other at right angles; the ends are bent at nearly right angles, one to the left, one to the right, and the other both ways.Fig. 63represents a spindle-whorl with a cup-shaped depression around the central hole, which is surrounded by three lines in concentric circles, while on the field, at 90 degrees from each other, are four ogee Swastikas (tetraskelions), the arms all turning to the left and spirally each upon itself. The specimen shown infig. 64is biconical, though, as usual, the upper cone is the smallest. There are parallel lines, three in a set, forming the segments of three circles, in one space of which appears a Swastika of a curious and unique form, similar to that shown infig. 60. The two main arms cross each other at very nearly right angles and the ends also bend at right angles toward and approaching each other, sothat if continued slightly farther they would close and form a decorative figure 8. The specimen shown infig. 65is decorated with parallel lines, three in number, arranged in segments of three circles, the periphery of which is toward the center, as in figs.60and64. In one of the spaces is a Swastika of curious form; the main arms cross each other at right angles, but the four ends represent different styles—two are bent square to the left, one square to the right, and the fourth curves to the left at no angle.Fig. 66shows a biconical whorl, and its top is decorated to represent three Swastikas and three burning altars. The ends of the arms of the Swastikas all bend to the left, some are at right angles and some at obtuse angles, while two or three are curved; two of them show corrections, the marks at the ends having been changed in one case at a different angle and in another from a straight line to a curve.Fig. 67shows four specimens of Swastika, the main arms of all of which cross at right angles. The ends all bend to the right, at nearly right angles, tapering to a point and finishing with the slight flourish noted in the Jain Swastika (fig. 34c). They are alternated with a chevron decoration.Fig. 68shows three Swastikas, the ends of the arms of which are all bent to the left. One Swastika is composed of two ogee lines. Two arms of another are curved, but all others are bent at right angles, some of them tapering to points, finishing with alittle flourish (figs.67and34c). One of these ends, like that infig. 66, has been corrected by the maker.Fig. 69represents one Swastika in which the main arms cross at nearly right angles. Both ends of one arm turn to the left and those of the other arm turn to the right in figure 8 style. One of the ends is curved, the others bent at different angles.Fig. 70shows the parallel lines representing segments of a circle similar to figs.60,64,65, and69, except that it has four instead of three. It has one Swastika; the main arms (of double lines) cross at right angles, the ends all curving to the left with a slight ogee.
Fig. 64.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA.Depth, 19.8 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1865.
Fig. 69.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKAOF THE FIGURE-8 STYLE.Depth, 19.8 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1861.
Fig. 70.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKA, SLIGHT OGEE.Depth, 19.8 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1864.
Fig. 71.CONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH THREE OGEE SWASTIKAS.Depth, 13.5 feet.Gift of Madame Schliemann, Cat. No. 149704, U. S. N. M.
The U. S. National Museum was, during 1893, the fortunate recipient of a collection of objects from Madame Schliemann, which her husband, before his death, had signified should be given to the United States as a token of his remembrance of and regard for his adopted country. He never forgot that he was an American citizen, and, preparing for death, made his acknowledgments in the manner mentioned. The collection consisted of 178 objects, all from ancient Troy, and they made a fair representation of his general finds. This collection is in the Department of Prehistoric Anthropology. In this collection is a spindle-whorl, found at 13½ feet (4 meters) depth and belonging to the fourth city. It had three Swastikas upon its face, and is here shown asfig. 71.[145]
The Fifth City.—Schliemann says:[146]
The rude stone hammers found in enormous quantities in the fourth city are no longer found in this stratum, nor did the stone axes, which are so very abundant there, occur again here.Instead of the hundreds of axes I gathered in the fourth city, I collected in all only two here. * * * The forms of the terra-cotta whorls, too, are in innumerable instances different here. These objects are of a much inferior fabric, and become elongated and pointed. Forms of whorls like Nos. 1801, 1802, and 1803 [seefigs. 72, 73, and 74], which were never found before, are here plentiful.
Figs. 72, 73, 74.FORMS OF WHORLS FROM THE FIFTH BURIED CITY OF HISSARLIK, FOR COMPARISON.Schliemann, “Ilios,” figs. 1801, 1802, 1803.
The Sixth and Seventh Cities.—The sixth city is described in “Ilios,” page 587, and the seventh on pages 608 and 618. Both cities contained occasional whorls of clay, all thoroughly baked, without incised or painted ornamentation, and shed no further light on the Swastika.
Fig. 75represents the opposite hemispheres of a terra-cotta ball, found at a depth of 26 feet, divided by incised lines into fifteen zones, of which two are ornamented with points and the middle zone, the largest of all, with thirteen specimens of[S]and[Z].
Fig. 75.TERRA-COTTA SPHERE WITH THIRTEEN SWASTIKAS.Third city. Depth, 26 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” figs. 245, 246.
Fig. 76.TERRA-COTTA DISK WITH ONE SWASTIKA.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1849.
Fig. 77.SPINDLE-WHORL WITHOGEE SWASTIKA.Third city.Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann,“Ilios,” fig. 1822.
Zmigrodzki says[147]that there were found by Schliemann, at Hissarlik, fifty-five specimens of the Swastika “pure and simple” (pp.809,826). It will be perceived by examination that the Swastika “pure and simple” comprised Swastikas of several forms; those in which the four arms of the cross were at other angles besides right angles; those in which the ends bent at square and other angles to the right; then those to the left (Burnouf and Max Müller’s Suavastika); those in which the bends were, some to the right and some to the left, in the same design; where the points tapered off and turned outward with a flourish; where the arms bent at no angle, but were in spirals each upon itself, and turned, some to the right, some to the left. We shall see other related forms, as where the arms turn spirally upon each other instead of upon themselves. These will sometimes have three, five, six, or more arms, instead of four (p. 768). The cross and the circle will also appear in connection with the Swastika; and other designs, as zigzags (lightning), burning altars, men, animals, and similar representations will be found associated with the Swastika, and are only related to it by the association of similar objects from the same locality. A description of their patterns will include those already figured, together with Schliemann’scomments as to signification and frequency. They become more important because these related forms will be found in distant countries and among distant peoples, notably among the prehistoric peoples of America. Possibly these designs have a signification, possibly not. Dr. Schliemann thought that in many cases they had. Professor Sayce supported him, strongly inclining toward an alphabetic or linguistic, perhaps ideographic, signification. No opinion is advanced by the author on these theories, but the designs are given in considerable numbers, to the end that the evidence may be fully reported, and future investigators, radical and conservative, imaginative and unimaginative, theorists and agnostics, may have a fair knowledge of this mysterious sign, and an opportunity to indulge their respective talents at length. Possibly these associated designs may throw some light upon the origin or history of the Swastika or of some of its related forms.