The Swastika Part 9

The specimen represented in fig. 76 is 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. 34_c_). Fig.

77 represents 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 inters.p.a.ces are four dots, similar to those in figs. 96-98, and others which Dr. Schliemann reports 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 of fig. 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. 60 and 64). Two others are crudely and irregularly formed, and would scarcely be recognized as Swastikas except for their a.s.sociation. Fig. 79 represents 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.

80 also ill.u.s.trates 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. 81 shows 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. 82 shows four segmented circles with an indefinite Swastika in one of the s.p.a.ces. 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. 83 contains 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 indifference of 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 in fig. 84 is 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. (See fig. 13_d_.) It has no other ornamentation. The same remark is to be made about the indifferent use of the Swastika in a.s.sociation with cross or circle. We have seen many Swastikas composed of the crossed ogee lines or curves. Figs. 85 and 86 show 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 83. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED. Ogee Swastika with central circle. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig.

1987.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 84. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH SIX OGEE SWASTIKAS HAVING CENTRAL CIRCLE AND DOT. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1862.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 85. SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH FLATTENED TOP AND OGEE LINES WHICH DO NOT FORM SWASTIKAS. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1890.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 86. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL WITH OGEE CURVES WHICH 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, 82 and 83). Also to the mysterious dots (figs. 46, 56, 75, 76, 77, 79, 84, 92, 96 and 97). Fig. 87 shows 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. 88 represents two sections of a terra-cotta sphere divided similar to fig. 49. Each of these sections contains a 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. 89 represents 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. 99 and 100).[148]

Figs. 90, 91, 92, and 93 show 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 in fig.

90.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 87. SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL, FLATTENED. Two Swastikas combined with segments and dots. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1988.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 88. SECTIONS OF TERRA-COTTA SPHERE.[149] Central circles with extended arms turning to the left, ogee and zigzag.

Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1993.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 89. SPHERICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Large central dot with twelve arms, similar in form to the 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 a.s.sociated with unmistakable Swastikas, they were part of the _res gestae_, and as such ent.i.tled 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 would be 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 90. SPINDLE-WHORL. Central dot with ogee arms radiating therefrom in different directions, but in the form of a Swastika. Third City. Depth, 29 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1830.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 91. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH CENTRAL HOLE AND RADIATING ARMS. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1842.]

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 plead _ignoramus_ as 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 a.s.sumed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 92. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH CENTRAL CIRCLE AND MANY ARMS.

Fourth city. Depth, 19.8 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1837.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 93. SPINDLE-WHORL WITH CENTRAL HOLE, LARGE CIRCLE, AND MANY CURVED ARMS. Third city. Depth, 29 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig.

1833.]

Evidence leading to conviction may be found in a.s.sociated contemporaneous specimens. M. Montelius, an archaeologist 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 fibulae found in prehistoric graves. In a.s.sorting his stock of fibulae, 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 cla.s.sified according to locality and a.s.sociation, 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 a.s.sociated, and so on. Nos. 7 and 8 were a.s.sociated, but not 6 and 8, nor 5 and 7, nor was there any a.s.sociation 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 separated from each other, as 1, 5, 8, were never found a.s.sociated, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 94. LARGE BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Four crosses with bifurcated arms. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig.

1855.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 95. SPINDLE-WHORL. Hole and large circle in center with broad arms of Greek cross. Third city. Depth, 26.4 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1820.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 96. SPINDLE-WHORL. Hole and large circle in center.

Extended parallel arms with dots, forming a Greek Cross. Third city.

Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1817.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 97. SPINDLE-WHORL. Greek cross. Tapering arms with dots. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1818.]

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. 94 represents 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, and 97 show 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. The question carries its own answer and is a refutation of those who fancy they can see mythology in everything. Fig. 98 is the same style of figure with the same dots, save that it has three instead of four arms. Figs. 99 and 100 each 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, in fig. 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. 101 shows both ends of a spindle-whorl, and is here inserted because it represents one of the "burning altars" of Dr. Schliemann, a.s.sociated with a Swastika, as in figs. 61, 66, and 68, and even those of figure-8 style (figs. 64 and 69).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 98. SPINDLE-WHORL. Central hole and three arms with dots. Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1819.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 99. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Four animals are shown similar to those found a.s.sociated with the Swastika. Third city. Depth, 33 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1877.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 100. BICONICAL SPINDLE-WHORL. Four animals are shown similar to those found a.s.sociated with the Swastika. Fourth city. Depth, 19.6 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 1867.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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. 72 and 74), 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 a.s.sociated decorative forms. This description is impossible in words; therefore the author has deemed it wiser to insert figures of these decorations as they appeared on the spindle-whorls found at Troy, and a.s.sociated 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 a.s.sociation and make such comparison as will satisfy him.

(Figs. 102 to 124.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figs. 102-113. TROJAN SPINDLE-WHORLS. Schliemann, "Ilios."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.n.a.lysis 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 Hitt.i.te capital, and pa.s.sed through Asia Minor to the sh.o.r.es and islands of the aegean Sea. Characteristic figures of the G.o.ddess have been discovered at Mycenae as well as in Cyprus.

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 Maeonia, and published by M. Salmon Reinach in Revue Archaeologique. By the side of the G.o.ddess 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 mult.i.tudes at Troy.

The chief interest to us of Dr. Schliemann's description of the idol lies in the last paragraph:[152]

The v.u.l.v.a 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 v.u.l.v.a. The most curious ornament of the figure is a Swastika, which we see in the middle of the v.u.l.v.a. * * * 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 v.u.l.v.a is represented on the six figures by a large triangle. * * * Similar white Parian marble figures, found in the Cyclades, whereon the v.u.l.v.a is represented by a decorated triangle, are preserved in the British Museum. Lenorment, in "Les Antiquites 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 G.o.ddess which had been brought by Phoenician merchants.

They were found in the most ancient sepulchers of the Cyclades, in company with stone weapons, princ.i.p.ally 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-a.s.syrian, Aramaean, and Phoenician 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 a.s.syrians.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 125. LEADEN IDOL OF ARTEMIS NANA OF CHALDEA, WITH SWASTIKA.[153] Third city. Depth, 23 feet. Schliemann, "Ilios," fig. 126.

1-1/3 natural size.]

It is to be remarked that this mark is not on the v.u.l.v.a, as declared by Schliemann, but rather on a triangle shield which covers the _mons 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 126. TERRA-COTTA VASE WITH MAMELON. Fourth city.

Depth, 16.5 feet. Cat. No. 149676, U. S. N. M. 1/3 natural size.]