Fig. 82.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH ONE SWASTIKAAND FOUR SEGMENTS OF CIRCLES.Third city. Depth, 33 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1989.
The specimen represented infig. 76is not a spindle-whorl, as shown by the number and location of the holes. It bears a good representation of a Swastika the form of which has been noticed several times. The two main arms cross each other at nearly right angles. The ends of the arms all bend to the right at a slightly obtuse angle and turn outward with a flourish somewhat after the style of the Jain Swastika (fig. 34c).Fig. 77represents a spindle-whorl with a Swastika of the ogee style curved to the right. The center hole of the whorl forms the center of the sign. The figure is of double lines, and in the interspaces are four dots, similar to those infigs. 96-98, and others which Dr. Schliemannreports as common, and to which he attributes some special but unknown meaning. Swastikas and crosses of irregular shape and style are shown in the field offig. 78. Two fairly well formed Swastikas appear, both of the ogee style, with the ends curved to the right. One is of the style resembling the figure 8 (see figs.60and64). Two others are crudely and irregularly formed, and would scarcely be recognized as Swastikas except for their association.Fig. 79represents uncertain and malformed Swastikas. The arms are bent in different directions in the same line. Two of the main arms are not bent. The inexplicable dots are present, and the field is more or less covered with unmeaning or, at least, unexplained marks.Fig. 80also illustrates the indefinite and inchoate style of decoration. One unfinished Swastika appears which, unlike anything we have yet seen, has a circle with a dot in the center for the body of the Swastika at the crossing of the main arms.Fig. 81shows two Swastikas, both crossing their main arms at right angles and the ends bending also at right angles—one to the right, the other to the left. This specimen is inserted here because of the numerous decorations of apparently unmeaning, or, at least, unexplained, lines.Fig. 82shows four segmented circles with an indefinite Swastika in one of the spaces. The ends are not well turned, only one being well attached to the main arms. One of the ends is not joined, one overruns and forms a sort of cross; the other has no bend.Fig. 83contains an unmistakable Swastika, the main arms of which cross at right angles, turning to the left with an ogee curve. The peculiarity of this specimen is that the center of the sign is inclosed in a circle, thus showing the indifferenceof the Swastika sign to other signs, whether cross or circle. The outer parts of the field are occupied with the parallel lines of the circle segment, as shown in many other specimens. The specimen shown infig. 84is similar in style to the last. The bodies of six Swastikas are formed by a circle and dot, while the arms of the cross start from the outside of the circle, extending themselves in curves, all of them to the right. (Seefig. 13d.) It has no other ornamentation. The same remark is to be made about the indifferent use of the Swastika in association with cross or circle. We have seen many Swastikas composed of the crossed ogee lines or curves. Figs.85and86show the same ogee lines and curves not crossed; and thus, while it may be that neither of them are Swastikas, yet they show a relationship of form from which the derivation of a Swastika would be easy.
Fig. 83.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED.Ogee Swastika with central circle.Third city. Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1987.
Fig. 86.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH OGEE CURVESWHICH ARE NOT CROSSED TO FORM SWASTIKAS.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1889.
Attention has been called to decorations comprising segments of the circles incised in these whorls, the periphery of which is toward their centers (figs.60,64,65,69,70,82and83). Also to the mysterious dots (figs.46,56,75,76,77,79,84,92,96and97).Fig. 87shows a combination of the segments of three circles, the dots within each, and two Swastikas. Of the Swastikas, one is normal, turning to the right; the other turns to the right, but at an obtuse angle, with one end straight and the other irregularly curved.Fig. 88represents two sections of a terra-cotta sphere divided similar tofig. 49. Each of these sections containsa figure like unto a Swastika and which may be related to it. It is a circle with arms springing from the periphery, which arms turn all to the left, as they do in the ogee Swastika. One has seven, the other nine, arms. One has regular, the other irregular, lines and intervals.Fig. 89represents a spindle-whorl of terra cotta nearly spherical, with decoration of a large central dot and lines springing thereout, almost like the spokes of a wheel, then all turning to the left as volutes. In some countries this has been called the sun symbol, but there is nothing to indicate that it had any signification at Hissarlik. One of the marks resembles the long-backed, four-legged animal (figs.99and100).[148]Figs.90,91,92, and93show a further adaptation of the ogee curve developed into a Swastika, in which many arms start from the center circle around the central hole in the whorl, finally taking a spiral form. The relation of this to a sun symbol is only mentioned and not specified or declared. The inexplicable and constantly recurring dots are seen infig. 90.
Fig. 87.SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED.Two Swastikas combined with segments and dots.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1988.
Fig. 88.SECTIONS OF TERRA-COTTA SPHERE.[149]Central circles with extended arms turning to the left,ogee and zigzag. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1993.
Fig. 89.SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL.Large central dot with twelve arms, similar in form tothe ogee Swastika. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1946.
It is not contended that these are necessarily evolutions of the Swastika. We will see farther on many lines and forms of decoration by incised lines on these Trojan whorls, which may have had no relation to the Swastika, but are inserted here because persons rich in theories and brilliant in imagination have declared that they could see a resemblance, a relation, in this or some other decoration. As objects belonging to the same culture, from the same locality, and intimately associated with unmistakable Swastikas, they were part of theres gestæ, and as such entitled to admission as evidence in the case. The effect of their evidence is a legitimate subject for discussion and argument. To refuse these figures admission wouldbe to decide the case against this contention without giving the opposing party an opportunity to see the evidence or to be heard in argument. Therefore the objects are inserted.
Specimens of other crosses are presented because the Swastika is considered to be a form of the cross. There may have been no evolution or relationship between them; but no person is competent to decide from a mere inspection or by reason of dissimilarity that there was not. We have to pleadignoramusas to the growth and evolution of both cross and Swastika, because the origin of both is lost in antiquity. But all are fair subjects for discussion. There certainly is nothing improbable in the relationship and evolution between the Swastika and the cross. It may be almost assumed.
Evidence leading to conviction may be found in associated contemporaneous specimens. M. Montelius, an archæologist of repute in the National Museum at Stockholm, discovered eight stages of culture in the bronze age of that country, which discovery was based solely upon the foregoing principle applied to the fibulæ found in prehistoric graves. In assorting his stock of fibulæ, he was enabled to lay out a series of eight styles, each different, but with many presentations. He arranged them seriatim, according to certain differences in size, style, elegance of workmanship, etc., No. 1 being the smallest, and No. 8 the largest and most elaborate. They were then classified according to locality and association, and he discovered that Nos. 1 and 2 belonged together, on the same body or in the same grave, and the same with Nos. 2 and 3, 3 and 4, and so on to No. 8, but that there was no general or indefinite intermixture; Nos. 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 were not found together and were not associated, and so on. Nos. 7 and 8 were associated, but not 6 and 8, nor 5 and 7, nor was there any association beyond adjoining numbers in the series. Thus Montelius was able to determine that each one or each two of the series formed a stage in the culture of these peoples. While the numbers of the series separatedfrom each other, as 1, 5, 8, were never found associated, yet it was conclusively shown that they were related, were the same object, all served a similar purpose, and together formed an evolutionary series showing their common origin, derivative growth and continuous improvement in art, always by communication between their makers or owners.
Fig. 94.LARGE BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL.Four crosses with bifurcated arms. Third city. Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1855.
Fig. 98.SPINDLE-WHORL.Central hole and threearms with dots. Thirdcity. Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,”fig. 1819.
Thus it may be with the other forms of crosses, and thus it appears to be with the circle and spiral Swastikas and those with ends bent in opposite and different directions. Just what their relations are and at which end of the series the evolution began, is not argued. This is left for the theorists and imaginists, protesting, however, that they must not run wild nor push their theories beyond bounds.Fig. 94represents four crosses, the main arms of which are at right angles, and each and all ends, instead of being turned at an angle which would make them Swastikas, are bifurcated and turn both ways, thus forming a foliated cross similar to the Maya cross, the “Tree of life.” Figs.95,96, and97show Greek crosses. The centers of the crosses are occupied by the central hole of the whorl, while the arms extend to the periphery. In the centers of the respective arms are the ubiquitous dots. The question might here be asked whether these holes, which represented circles, stood for the sun symbol or solar disk. Thequestion carries its own answer and is a refutation of those who fancy they can see mythology in everything.Fig. 98is the same style of figure with the same dots, save that it has three instead of four arms. Figs.99and100each show four of the curious animals heretofore represented (fig. 56) in connection with the Swastika. They are here inserted for comparison. They are all of the same form, and one description will serve. Back straight, tail drooping, four legs, round head showing eye on one side, and long ears resembling those of a rabbit or hare, which, infig. 56, are called horns. The general remarks in respect to the propriety of inserting crosses and burning altars (p. 824) apply with equal pertinency to these animals and to the unexplained dots seen on so many specimens.Fig. 101shows both ends of a spindle-whorl, and is here inserted because it represents one of the “burning altars” of Dr. Schliemann, associated with a Swastika, as in figs.61,66, and68, and even those of figure-8 style (figs.64and69).
Fig. 99.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL.Four animals are shown similar to those foundassociated with the Swastika. Third city.Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1877.
Fig. 100.BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL.Four animals are shown similar to those foundassociated with the Swastika. Fourth city.Depth, 19.6 feet. Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1867.
Fig. 101.SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FIGURE-8 SWASTIKA (?)AND SIX “BURNING ALTARS.”Fourth city. Depth, 19.6 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig. 1838.
Dr. Schliemann found, during his excavations on the hill of Hissarlik, no less than 1,800 spindle-whorls. A few were from the first and second cities; they were of somewhat peculiar form (figs.72and74), but the greatest number were from the third city, thence upward in decreasing numbers. The Swastika pure and simple was found on 55 specimens, while its related or suggested forms were on 420 (pp.809,819). Many of the other whorls were decorated with almost every imaginable form of dot, dash, circle, star, lozenge, zigzag, with many indefinite and undescribable forms. In presenting the claims of the Swastika as an intentional sign, with intentional, though perhaps different, meanings, it might be unsatisfactory to the student to omit descriptions of these associated decorative forms. This description is impossible in words; therefore the author has deemed it wiser to insertfigures of these decorations as they appeared on the spindle-whorls found at Troy, and associated with those heretofore given with the Swastika. It is not decided, however, that these have any relation to the Swastika, or that they had any connection with its manufacture or existence, either by evolution or otherwise, but they are here inserted to the end that the student and reader may take due account of the association and make such comparison as will satisfy him. (Figs. 102 to 124.)
Figs. 102-113. TROJAN SPINDLE-WHORLS. Schliemann, “Ilios.”
Figs. 114-124. TROJAN SPINDLE-WHORLS. Schliemann, “Ilios.”
Leaden idol of Hissarlik.—Dr. Schliemann, in his explorations on the hill of Hissarlik, at a depth of 23 feet, in the third, the burnt city, found a metal idol (fig. 125), which was determined on an analysis to be lead.[150]It was submitted to Professor Sayce who made the following report:[151]
It is the Artemis Nana of Chaldea, who became the chief deity of Carchemish, the Hittite capital, and passed through Asia Minor to the shores and islands of the Ægean Sea. Characteristic figures of the goddess have been discovered at Mycenæ as well as in Cyprus.
Fig. 125.LEADEN IDOL OFARTEMIS NANAOF CHALDEA,WITH SWASTIKA.[153]Third city. Depth, 23 feet.Schliemann, “Ilios,” fig.126. 1⅓ natural size.
In “Troja” Professor Sayce says:
Precisely the same figure, with ringlets on either side of the head, but with a different ornament (dots instead of Swastika) sculptured on a piece of serpentine was recently found in Mæonia, and published by M. Salmon Reinach in Revue Archæologique. By the side of the goddess stands the Babylonian Bel, and among the Babylonian symbols that surround them is the representation of one of the terra-cotta whorls, of which Dr. Schliemann found such multitudes at Troy.
The chief interest to us of Dr. Schliemann’s description of the idol lies in the last paragraph:[152]
The vulva is represented by a large triangle, in the upper side of which we see three globular dots; we also see two lines of dots to the right and left of the vulva. The most curious ornament of the figure is a Swastika, which we see in the middle of the vulva. * * * So far as we know, the only figures to which the idol before us has any resemblance are the female figures of white marble found in tombs in Attica and in the Cyclades. Six of them, which are in the museum at Athens, * * * represent naked women. * * * The vulva is represented on the six figures by a large triangle. * * * Similar white Parian marble figures, found in the Cyclades, whereon the vulva is represented by a decorated triangle, are preserved in the British Museum. Lenorment, in “Les Antiquités de la Troade” (p. 46), says: “The statuettes of the Cyclades, in the form of a naked woman, appear to be rude copies made by the natives, at the dawn of their civilization, from the images of the Asiatic goddess which had been brought by Phœnician merchants. They were found in the most ancient sepulchers of the Cyclades, in company with stone weapons, principally arrowheads of obsidian from Milo, and with polished pottery without paintings. We recognize in them the figures of the Asiatic Venus found in such large numbers from the banks of the Tigris to the island of Cyprus, through the whole extent of the Chaldeo-Assyrian, Aramæan, and Phœnician world. Their prototype is the Babylonian Zarpanit, or Zirbanit, so frequently represented on the cylinders and by terra-cotta idols, the fabrication of which begins in the most primitive time of Chaldea and continues among the Assyrians.
It is to be remarked that this mark is not on the vulva, as declared by Schliemann, but rather on a triangle shield which covers themons veneris.
Professor Sayce is of the opinion, from the evidence of this leaden idol, that the Swastika was, among the Trojans, a symbol of the generative power of man.
An added interest centers in these specimens from the fact that terra-cotta shields of similar triangular form, fitted to the curvature of the body, were worn in the same way in prehistoric times by the aboriginal women of Brazil. These pieces have small holes at the angles, apparently for suspension by cords. The U. S. National Museum has some of these, and they will be figured in the chapter relating to Brazil. The similarity between these distant objects is remarkable, whether they were related or not, and whether the knowledge or custom came over by migration or not.
Owl-shaped vases.—It is also remarkable to note in this connection the series of owl-shaped terra-cotta vases of the ruined cities of Hissarlik and their relation to the Swastika as a possible symbol of the generative power. These vases have rounded bottoms, wide bellies, high shoulders (the height of which is emphasized by the form and position of the handles), the mouth narrow and somewhat bottle-shaped, but not entirely so. What would be the neck is much larger than usual for a bottle, and more like the neck of a human figure, which the object in its entirety represents in a rude, but, nevertheless, definite, manner. At the top of the vase are the eyes, eyebrows, and the nose. It is true that the round eyes, the arched eyebrows, and the pointed nose give it somewhat an owlish face, but if we look atfig. 127, the human appearance of which is emphasized by the cover of the vase, which serves as a cap for the head and has the effect of enlarging it to respectable dimensions, we will see how nearly it represents a human being. The U. S. National Museum possesses one of these vases in the Schliemann collection (fig. 126). It has the face as described, while the other human organs are only indicated by small knobs. It and the three figures,127,128, and129, form a series of which the one in the Museum would be the first, the others following in the order named.No. 2 in the series has the female attributes indefinitely and rudely indicated, the lower organ being represented by a concentric ring. In No. 3 the mammæ are well shown, while the other organ has the concentric ring, the center of which is filled with a Greek cross with four dots, one in each angle, theCroix swasticaleof Zmigrodzki (fig. 12). No. 4 of the series is more perfect as a human, for the mouth is represented by a circle, the mammæ are present, while in the other locality appears a well-defined Swastika. The first three of these were found in the fourth city at 20 to 22 feet depth, respectively; the last was found in the fifth city at a depth of 10 feet. The leaden idol (fig. 125), with its Swastika mark on the triangle covering the private parts, may properly be considered as part of the series. When to this series is added thefolium vitusof Brazil (pl. 18), the similarity becomes significant, if not mysterious. But, with all this significance and mystery, it appears to the author that this sign, in its peculiar position, has an equal claim as a symbol of blessing, happiness, good fortune, as that it represents the generative power.
From the earliest time of which we have knowledge of the thoughts or desires of man we know that the raising up “heirs of his body” constituted his greatest blessing and happiness, and their failure his greatest misery. The first and greatest command of God to man, as set forth in the Holy Bible, is to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”[154]This was repeated after the Deluge,[155]and when He pronounced the curse in the Garden, that upon the woman[156]was, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” God’s greatest blessing to Abraham, when He gave to him and his seed the land as far as he could see, was that his seed should be as the dust of the earth, “so that if aman can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.”[157]“Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them * * * so shall thy seed be. * * * As the father of many nations,” etc. We all know the story of Sarai, how, when she and Abraham had all riches and power on earth, it was as naught while they were childless, and how their greatest blessing was the Divine promise of an heir, and that their greatest happiness was over the birth of Isaac. This may be no proof of the symbolism of the Swastika, but it shows how, in high antiquity, man’s happiness in his children was such as makes the Swastika mark, in the position indicated, equally a symbol of good fortune and blessing as it was when put on the spindle-whorls of Hissarlik, the vases of Greece, or the fibulæ of Etruria.
The age of the Trojan cities.—It may be well to consider for a moment the age or epoch of these prehistoric Trojan cities on the hill of Hissarlik. Professor Virchow was appealed to by Schliemann for his opinion. He says:[158]
Other scholars have been inclined to ascribe the oldest cities of Hissarlik to the Neolithic age, because remarkable weapons and utensils of polished stone are found in them. * * * This conception is unjustified and inadmissible. To the third century A. D. belongs the surface of the fortress hill of Hissarlik, which still lies above the Macedonian wall; and the oldest “cities”—although not only polished stones but also chipped flakes of chalcedony and obsidian occur in them—nevertheless fall within the age of metals, for even in the first city utensils of copper, gold, and even silver were dug up. No stone people, properly so called, dwelt upon the fortress hill of Hissarlik, so far as it has been uncovered.
Virchow’s opinion that none of the cities of Hissarlik were in the stone age may be correct, but the reason he gave is certainly doubtful. He says they come within the age of metals, for, or because, “utensils of copper, gold, and even silver were dug up among the ruins of the first city.” That the metals, gold, silver, or copper, were used by the aborigines, is no evidence that they were in a metal age, as it has been assigned and understood by prehistoric archæologists. The great principle upon which the names of the respective prehistoric ages—stone, bronze, and iron—were given, was that these materials were used for cutting and similar implements. The use of gold and silver or any metal for ornamental purposes has never been considered by archæologists as synchronous with a metal age. Indeed, in the United States there are great numbers of aboriginal cutting implements of copper, of which the U. S. National Museum possesses a collection of five or six hundred; yet they were not in sufficient number to, and they did not, supersede the use of stone as the principal material for cutting implements, and so do not establish a copper age in America. In Paleolithic times bone was largely used as material for utensils and ornaments. Bone was habitually in use for one purpose or another, yet no one ever pretended that this establishes a bone age. In countries and localities where stone is scarce and shell abundant, cuttingimplements were, in prehistoric times, made of shell; and chisels or hatchets of shell, corresponding to the polished stone hatchet, were prevalent wherever the conditions were favorable, yet nobody ever called it an age of shell. So, in the ruined cities of Hissarlik, the first five of them abounded in stone implements peculiar to the Neolithic age, and while there may have been large numbers of implements and utensils of other materials, yet this did not change it from the polished stone age. In any event, the reason given by Virchow—i. e., that the use, undisputed, of copper, gold, and silver by the inhabitants of these cities—is not evidence to change their culture status from that denominated as the polished stone age or period.
Professor Virchow subsequently does sufficient justice to the antiquity of Schliemann’s discoveries and says[159]while “it is impossible to assign these strata to the stone age, yet they are indications of what is the oldest known settlement in Asia Minor of a people of prehistoric times of some advance in civilization,” and[160]that “no place in Europe is known which could be put in direct connection with any one of the six lower cities of Hissarlik.”
Professor Sayce also gives his opinion on the age of these ruins:[161]
The antiquities, therefore, unearthed by Dr. Schliemann at Troy, acquire for us a double interest. They carry us back to the later stone ages of the Aryan race.
AFRICA.
EGYPT.
A consensus of the opinions of antiquarians is that the Swastika had no foothold among the Egyptians. Prof. Max Müller is of this opinion, as is also Count Goblet d’Alviella.[162]
Waring[163]says:
The only sign approaching the fylfot in Egyptian hieroglyphics that we have met is shown in fig. 3, pl. 41, where it forms one of the hieroglyphs of Isis, but is not very similar to our fylfot.
Mr. Greg says:[164]“In Egypt the fylfot does not occur.” Many other authors say the same. Yet many specimens of the Swastika have been found in Egypt (figs. 130 to 136). Professor Goodyear[165]says:
The earliest dated Swastikas are of the third millenium B. C., and occur on the foreign Cyprian and Carian (?) pottery fragments of the time of the twelfth dynasty (in Egypt), discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie in 1889. (Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, pl. 27, Nos. 162 and 173.)