The Swastika Part 16

_Swastika on coins in Mesembria and Gaza._--Mr. Percy Gardner, in his article, "Ares as a Sun-G.o.d,"[243] finds the Swastika on a coin of Mesembria in Thrace. He explains that "Mesembria is simply the Greek word for noon, midday ([Greek: mesembria])." The coins of this city bear the inscription [Greek: MES][S], which Greg[244] believes refers by a kind of pun to the name of the city, and so to noon, or the sun or solar light.

The answer to this is the same given throughout this paper, that it may be true, but there is no evidence in support of it. Max Muller[245] argues that this specimen is decisive of the meaning of the sign Swastika. Both these gentlemen place great stress upon the position which the Swastika held in the field relative to other objects, and so determine it to have represented the sun or sunlight; but all this seems _non sequitur_. A coin from Gaza, Palestine, ancient, but date not given, is attributed to R.

Rochette, and by him to Munter (fig. 235). The Swastika sign is not perfect, only two arms of the cross being turned, and not all four.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 236. GOLD BRACTEATE WITH JAIN SWASTIKA. Denmark.

Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 1, fig. 9.]

_Swastika on Danish gold bracteates._--Fig. 236 represents a Danish gold bracteate with a portrait head, two serpents, and a Swastika with the outer ends finished with a curve or flourish similar to that of the Jains (fig. 33).

There are other bracteates with the Swastika mark, which belong to the Scandinavian countries.[246] Some of them bear signs referring to Christian civilization, such as raising hands in prayer; and from a determination of the dates afforded by the coins and other objects the Swastika can be identified as having continued into the Christian era.

The coinage of the ancient world is not a prolific field for the discovery of the Swastika. Other specimens may possibly be found than those here given. This search is not intended to be exhaustive. Their negative information is, however, valuable. It shows, first, that some of the early stamps or designs on coins which have been claimed as Swastikas were naught but the usual punch marks; second, it shows a limited use of the Swastika on the coinage and that it came to an end in very early times. Numismatics afford great aid to archaeology from the facility and certainty with which it fixes dates. Using the dates furnished by the coinage of antiquity, it is gravely to be questioned whether the prolific use of the Swastika in Asia Minor (of which we have such notable examples on specimens of pottery from the hill of Hissarlik, in Greece) did not terminate before coinage began, or before 480 B. C., when the period of finer engraving began, and it became the custom to employ on coins the figures of G.o.ds, of tutelary deities, and of sacred animals. Thus the use of the Swastika became relegated to objects of commoner use, or those having greater relation to superst.i.tion and folklore wherein the possible value of the Swastika as an amulet or sign with power to bring good luck could be better employed; or, as suggested by Mr. Greg, that the great G.o.ds which, according to him, had the Swastika for a symbol, fell into disrepute and it became changed to represent something else.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

PRE-COLUMBIAN TIMES.

_Fains Island and Toco Mounds, Tennessee._--That the Swastika found its way to the Western Hemisphere in prehistoric times can not be doubted. A specimen (fig. 237) was taken by Dr. Edward Palmer in the year 1881 from an ancient mound opened by him on Fains Island, 3 miles from Bainbridge, Jefferson County, Tenn. It is figured and described in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,[247] as follows:

A sh.e.l.l ornament, on the convex surface of which a very curious ornamental design has been engraved. The design, inclosed by a circle, represents a cross such as would be formed by two rectangular tablets or slips slit longitudinally and interlaced at right angles to each other. The lines are neatly and deeply incised. The edge of the ornament has been broken away nearly all around.

The incised lines of this design (fig. 237) represent the Swastika turned to the left (though the description does not recognize it as such). It has small circles with dots in the center, a style of work that may become of peculiar value on further investigation, but not to be confounded with the dots or points in what M. Zmigrodzki calls the _Croix swasticale_. The mound from which this specimen came, and the objects a.s.sociated with it, show its antiquity and its manufacture by the aborigines untainted by contact with the whites. The mound is on the east end of Fains Island. It was 10 feet in height and about 100 feet in circ.u.mference at the base. In the bed of clay 4 feet beneath the surface were found the remains of 32 human skeletons; of these, only 17 skulls could be preserved. There had been no regularity in placing the bodies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 237. Sh.e.l.l GORGET WITH ENGRAVED SWASTIKA, CIRCLES, AND DOTS. Fains Island, Tennessee. Cat. No. 62928, U. S. N. M.]

The peculiar form of this Swastika is duplicated by a Runic Swastika in Sweden, cited by Ludwig Muller and by Count d'Alviella.[248]

The following objects were found in the mound on Fains Island a.s.sociated with the Swastika sh.e.l.l (fig. 237) and described, and many of them figured:[249] A gorget of the same _Fulgur_ sh.e.l.l (fig. 239); a second gorget of _Fulgur_ sh.e.l.l with an engraved spider (fig. 278); a pottery vase with a figure of a frog; three rude axes from four to seven inches in length, of diorite and quartzite; a pierced tablet of slate; a disk of translucent quartz 1-3/4 inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch in thickness; a ma.s.s of pottery, much of it in fragments, and a number of bone implements, including needles and paddle-shaped objects. The sh.e.l.l objects (in addition to the disks and gorgets mentioned) were pins made from the columellae of Fulgur (_Busycon perversum_?) of the usual form and about four inches in length. There were also found sh.e.l.l beads, cylindrical in form, an inch in length and upward of an inch in diameter, with other beads of various sizes and shapes made from marine sh.e.l.ls, and natural specimens of _Io spinosa_, _Unio probatus_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 238. ENGRAVED Sh.e.l.l WITH SWASTIKA, CIRCLES, AND DOTS.

Toco Mound, Monroe County, Tenn. Cat. No. 115624, U. S. N. M.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 10. ENGRAVED FULGUR(?) Sh.e.l.l, RESEMBLING STATUE OF BUDDHA. Toco Mound, Tennessee. Cat. No. 115560, U. S. N. M.]

The specimen represented in fig. 238 is a small sh.e.l.l from the Big Toco mound, Monroe County, Tenn., found by Mr. Emmert with skeleton No. 49 and is fig. 262, Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91, page 383, although it is not described. This is a circular disk of _Fulgur_ sh.e.l.l, much damaged around the edge, 1-1/2 inches in diameter, on which has been engraved a Swastika. It has a small circle and a dot in the center, around which circle the arms of the Swastika are interlaced.

There are also circles and central dots at each turn of the four arms. The hatch work in the arc identifies this work with that of other crosses and a triskelion from the same general locality--figs. 302, 305, and 306, the former being part of the same find by Mr. Emmert. Fig. 222, a bronze gilt fibula from Berkshire, England, bears a Swastika of the same style as fig.

238 from Tennessee. The circles and central dots of fig. 238 have a similarity to Peruvian ornamentation. The form and style, the broad arms, the circles and central dots, the lines of engravings, show such similarity of form and work as mark this specimen as a congener of the Swastika from Fains Island (fig. 237). The other objects found in the mound a.s.sociated with this Swastika will be described farther on.

There can be no doubt of these figures being the genuine Swastika, and that they were of aboriginal workmanship. Their discovery immediately suggests investigation as to evidences of communication with the Eastern Hemisphere, and naturally the first question would be, Are there any evidences of Buddhism in the Western Hemisphere? When I found, a few days ago, the two before-described representations of Swastikas, it was my belief that no reliable trace of Buddha or the Buddhist religion had ever been found among the aboriginal or prehistoric Americans. This statement was made, as almost all other statements concerning prehistoric man should be, with reserve, and subject to future discoveries, but without idea that a discovery of evidence on the subject was so near. In searching the U. S.

National Museum for the objects described in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology under the t.i.tle of "Art in Sh.e.l.l among the Ancient Americans," the writer discovered a neglected specimen of a mutilated and damaged sh.e.l.l (pl. 10), marked as shown on the back, found by Mr. Emmert, an employe of the Bureau of Ethnology, in the year 1882. Its original field number was 267, Professor Thomas's 6542, the Museum number 115562, and it was found in the Big Toco mound, Monroe County, Tenn. It is not figured nor mentioned in any of the Bureau reports. It is greatly to be regretted that this sh.e.l.l is so mutilated. In its present condition no one can say positively what it is, whether a statue of Buddha or not; but to all appearances it represents one of the Buddhist divinities. Its material, similar to the hundred others found in the neighborhood, shows it to have been indigenous, yet parts of its style are different from other aboriginal North American images. Attention is called to the slim waist, the winged arms, the crossed legs, the long feet, breadth of toes, the many dots and circles shown over the body, with triple lines of garters or anklets. All these show a different dress from the ancient North American. The girdle about the waist, and the triangular dress which, with its decorations and arrangement of dots and circles, cover the lower part of the body, are to be remarked. While there are several specimens of aboriginal art from this part of the country which bear these peculiarities of costumes, positions, appearance, and manner of work, showing them to have been in use among a portion of the people, yet they are not part of the usual art products. There is a manifest difference between this and the ordinary statue of the Indian or of the mound builder of that neighborhood or epoch.

It is not claimed that this sh.e.l.l proves the migration of Buddhism from Asia, nor its presence among North American Indians. "One swallow does not make a summer." But this figure, taken in connection with the Swastika, presents a set of circ.u.mstances corresponding with that possibility which goes a long distance in forming circ.u.mstantial evidence in its favor.

M. Gustave d'Eichthal wrote a series of essays in the Revue Archaeologique, 1864-65, in which he collated the evidence and favored the theory of Buddhist influence in ancient America. Other writers have taken the same or similar views and have attributed all manner of foreign influence, like the Lost Tribes of Israel, etc., to the North American Indian,[250] but all these theories have properly had but slight influence in turning public opinion in their direction. Mr. V. R. Gandhi, in a recent letter to the author, says of this specimen (pl. 10):

While Swastika technically means the cross with the arms bent to the right, later on it came to signify anything which had the form of a cross; for instance, the posture in which a persons sits with his legs crossed is called the Swastika posture;[251] also when a person keeps his arms crosswise over his chest, or a woman covers her breast with her arms crossed, that particular att.i.tude, is called the Swastika att.i.tude, which has no connection, however, with the symbolic meaning of the Swastika with four arms. The figure [pl. 10], a photograph of which you gave me the other day, has the same Swastika posture. In matters of concentration and meditation, Swastika posture is oftentimes prescribed, which is also called Sukhasana, meaning a posture of ease and comfort. In higher forms of concentration, the posture is changed from Sukhasana to Padmasana, the posture which is generally found in Jain and Buddhist images. The band around the waist, which goes from the navel lower on till it reaches the back part, has a peculiar significance in the Jain philosophy. The Shvetamber division of the Jain community have always this kind of band in their images. The object is twofold: The first is that the generative parts ought not to be visible; the second is that this band is considered a symbol of perfect chast.i.ty.

There can be no doubt of the authenticity of these objects, nor any suspicion against their having been found as stated in the labels attached. They are in the Museum collection, as are other specimens. They come unheralded and with their peculiar character unknown. They were obtained by excavations made by a competent and reliable investigator who had been engaged in mound exploration, a regular employe of the Bureau of Ethnology, under the direction of Prof. Cyrus Thomas during several years, and always of good reputation and unblemished integrity. They come with other objects, labeled in the same way and forming one of a series of numbers among thousands. Its resemblance to Buddhist statues was apparently undiscovered or unrecognized, at least unmentioned, by all those having charge of it, and in its mutilated condition it was laid away among a score of other specimens of insufficient value to justify notice or publication, and is now brought to light through accident, no one having charge of it recognizing it as being different from any other of the half hundred engraved sh.e.l.ls theretofore described. The excavation of Toco mound is described by Professor Thomas in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pages 379-384.

We can now be governed only by the record as to the objects a.s.sociated with this sh.e.l.l (pl. 10), which shows it to have been found with skeleton No. 8, in Big Toco mound, Monroe County, Tenn., while the Swastika of figure 238 was found with skeleton No. 49. Toco mound contained fifty-two skeletons, or, rather, it contained buried objects reported as from that many skeletons. Those reported as with skeleton No. 8 were, in addition to this gorget: One polished stone hatchet, one stone pipe, and one bowl with scalloped rim. Toco mound seems to have been exceedingly rich, having furnished 198 objects of considerable importance. a.s.sociation of discovered objects is one of the important means of furnishing evidence in prehistoric archaeology. It is deemed of sufficient importance in the present case to note objects from Toco mound a.s.sociated with the Buddha statue. They are given in list form, segregated by skeletons:

Skeleton No.

4. Two polished stone hatchets, one discoidal stone.

5. One polished stone hatchet.

7. Two large seash.e.l.ls.

8. One stone pipe, one polished stone hatchet, one ornamented sh.e.l.l gorget (the Buddha statue, pl. 10), one ornamented bowl, with scalloped rim.

9. Two polished stone hatchets.

12. A lot of small sh.e.l.l beads.

13. Four bone implements (one ornamented), one stone pipe, two sh.e.l.l gorgets (one ornamented), one bear tooth.

17. One polished stone hatchet.

18. Two polished stone hatchets, one stone pipe, one boat-shaped bowl (ornamented), one sh.e.l.l gorget (ornamented), one sh.e.l.l mask, one sh.e.l.l pin, one sh.e.l.l gorget, one bear tooth, lot of sh.e.l.l beads.

22. Two polished stone chisels, one stone disk.

24. One polished stone hatchet.

26. Two polished stone hatchets, one waterworn stone, two hammer stones.

27. One polished stone hatchet.

28. Two polished stone hatchets, one ornamented bowl.

31. One polished stone hatchet, one polished stone chisel.

33. Two polished stone hatchets, one two-eared pot, one small sh.e.l.l gorget, three sh.e.l.l pins, fragments of pottery.

34. Three polished stone hatchets.

36. One discoidal stone.

37. One polished stone chisel, one stone pipe, one sh.e.l.l mask (ornamented).

41. One polished stone hatchet, one stone pipe, pottery vase with ears (ornamented), one sh.e.l.l mask, one sh.e.l.l pin, four arrowheads (two with serrated edges), two stone perforators.

43. Lot of sh.e.l.l beads.

49. One polished stone hatchet, one spade-shaped stone ornament (perforated), one spear-head, one stone pipe, one pottery bowl with two handles, two sh.e.l.l masks (ornamented), twenty-seven bone needles, two beaver teeth, one bone implement (racc.o.o.n), piece of mica, lot of red paint, two sh.e.l.l gorgets (one ornamented with Swastika, fig. 238), thirty-six arrow-heads, lot of flint chips, fragment of animal jaw and bones, lot of large sh.e.l.ls, one image pot.

51. One sh.e.l.l pin, one sh.e.l.l mask, one arrow-head, two small sh.e.l.l beads.