II.—Dispersion of the Swastika. (continued 1)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Wilson, Thomas
Fig. 130a. DETAIL OF VASE SHOWN IN THE PRECEDING FIGURE.
Naukratis.—Figs. 130 to 135, made after illustrations in Mr. W. Flinders Petrie’s Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (Pt. 1), found by him in Naukratis, all show unmistakable Swastikas. It should be explained that these are said to be Greek vases which have been imported into Egypt. So that, while found in Egypt and so classed geographically, they are not Egyptian, but Greek.
Coptos (Achmim-Panopolis).—Within the past few years great discoveries have been made in Upper Egypt, in Sakkarah, Fayum, and Achmim, the last of which was the ancient city of Panopolis. The inhabitants of Coptos and the surrounding or neighboring cities were Christian Greeks, who migrated from their country during the first centuries of our era and settled in this land of Egypt. Strabo mentions these people and their ability as weavers and embroiderers. Discoveries have been made of their cemeteries, winding sheets, and grave clothes. These clothes have been subjected to analytic investigation, and it is the conclusion of M. Gerspach, the administrator of the national manufactory of the Gobelin tapestry, Paris,[166] that they were woven in the same way as the Gobelins, and that, except being smaller, they did not differ essentially from them. He adds:
These Egyptian tapestries and those of the Gobelins are the result of work which is identical except in some secondary details, so that I have been able, without difficulty, to reproduce these Coptic tapestries in the Gobelin manufactory.
Fig. 131. POTTERY FRAGMENTS WITH TWO MEANDER SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Third Memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, part 1, pl. 5, figs. 15, 24.
Fig. 132. FRAGMENT OF GREEK VASE WITH LION AND THREE MEANDER SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, fig. 7, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 30, fig. 2.
On one of these Coptic cloths, made of linen, reproduced in “Die Gräber- und Textilfunde von Achmim-Panopolis,” by R. Forrer, occurs a normal Swastika embroidered or woven, tapestry fashion, with woolen thread (fig. 136). It belongs to the first epoch, which includes portions of the first and second centuries A. D. There were on these cloths an enormous amount of decoration, representing many figures, both natural and geometric. Among them was the Swastika variously applied and in different sizes, sometimes inserted in borders, and sometimes adorning the corners of the tunics and togas as a large medallion, as shown in the figure.[167]
Fig. 133. FRAGMENT OF GREEK VASE DECORATED WITH FIGURES OF SACRED ANIMALS AND SWASTIKAS, ASSOCIATED WITH GREEK FRET. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, pl. 6, fig. 1.
Fig. 134. FRAGMENT OF GREEK VASE WITH FIGURES OF ANIMALS, TWO MEANDER SWASTIKAS, AND GREEK FRET. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, pl. 8, fig. 1, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 30, fig. 10.
Fig. 135. GREEK VASE WITH DEER, AND MEANDER AND FIGURE-8 SWASTIKAS. Naukratis, Ancient Egypt. Petrie, Sixth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, part 2, pl. 5, fig. 1.
Fig. 136. GREEK TAPESTRY. Coptos, Egypt. First and second centuries, A. D. Forrer, “Die Gräber- und Textilfunde von Achmin-Panopolis.”
ALGERIA.
Fig. 137. TORUS OF COLUMN WITH SWASTIKAS. Roman ruins, Algeria. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 43, fig. 2, quoting from Delamare.
Waring, in his “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” discoursing upon the Swastika, which he calls fylfot, shows in pl. 43, fig. 2 (quoting from Delamare), the base of a column from a ruined Roman building in Algeria (fig. 137), on the torus of which are engraved two Swastikas, the arms crossing at right angles, all ends bent at right angles to the left. There are other figures (five and six on the same plate) of Swastikas from a Roman mosaic pavement in Algeria. Instead of being square, however, or at right angles, as might ordinarily be expected from mosaic, they are ogee. In one of the specimens the ogee ends finish in a point; in the other they finish in a spiral volute turning upon itself. The Swastika has been found on a tombstone in Algeria.[168]
ASHANTEE.
Fig. 138. BRONZE INGOTS BEARING SWASTIKAS. Coomassee, Ashantee.
Mr. R. B. Æneas McLeod, of Invergordon Castle, Ross-shire, Scotland, reported[169] that, on looking over some curious bronze ingots captured at Coomassee in 1874, during the late Ashantee war, by Captain Eden, in whose possession they were at Inverness, he had found some marked with the Swastika sign (fig. 138). These specimens were claimed to be aboriginal, but whether the marks were cast or stamped in the ingot is not stated.
CLASSICAL OCCIDENT—MEDITERRANEAN.
GREECE AND THE ISLANDS OF CYPRUS, RHODES, MELOS, AND THERA.
The Swastika has been discovered in Greece and in the islands of the Archipelago on objects of bronze and gold, but the principal vehicle was pottery; and of these the greatest number were the painted vases. It is remarkable that the vases on which the Swastika appears in the largest proportion should be the oldest, those belonging to the Archaic period. Those already shown as having been found at Naukratis, in Egypt, are assigned by Mr. Flinders Petrie to the sixth and fifth centuries B. C., and their presence is accounted for by migrations from Greece.
Fig. 139. VARIATION OF THE GREEK FRET. Continuous lines crossing each other at right angles forming figures resembling the Swastikas.
Fig. 140. GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE IN THE LEYDEN MUSEUM, WITH FIGURES OF GEESE AND SWASTIKA IN PANEL.[170] Smyrna. Conze, “Anfänge,” etc., Vienna, 1870, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 56, fig. 4.
Fig. 141. GREEK VASE WITH FIGURES OF HORSES, GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTS AND SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Athens. Dennis, “Etruria,” 1, p. cxiii.
Fig. 142. GREEK VASE WITH SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Conze, “Anfänge,” etc., and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 60, fig. 13.
The Greek fret and Egyptian meander not the same as the Swastika.—Professor Goodyear says:[171] “There is no proposition in archæology which can be so easily demonstrated as the assertion that the Swastika is originally a fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are called in evidence.”
Egyptian meander here means the Greek fret. Despite the ease with which he says it can be demonstrated that the Swastika was originally a fragment of the Egyptian meander, and with all respect for the opinion of so profound a student of classic ornament, doubts must arise as to the existence of the evidence necessary to prove his proposition.
Fig. 143. DETAIL OF ARCHAIC GREEK VASE WITH FIGURE OF SOLAR GOOSE AND SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. British Museum. Waring, “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” pl. 41, fig. 15.
Fig. 144. CYPRIAN POTTERY PLAQUE WITH SWASTIKA IN PANEL. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” pl. 47, fig. 40.
Fig. 145. DETAIL OF CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS IN TRIANGLES. Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 1, fig. 11.
Fig. 146. DETAIL OF ATTIC VASE WITH FIGURE OF ANTELOPE (?) AND SWASTIKA. British Museum. Böhlau, Jahrbuch, 1885, p. 50, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 37, fig. 9.
Fig. 147. CYPRIAN VASE WITH SWASTIKAS. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” appendix by Murray, p. 404, fig. 15.
Fig. 148. TERRA COTTA FIGURINE WITH SWASTIKAS IN PANELS. Cesnola, “Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples,” p. 300, and Ohnefalsch-Richter, Bull. Soc. d’Anthrop., Paris, 1888, p. 691.
Fig. 149. TERRA COTTA VASE WITH SWASTIKA AND FIGURE OF HORSE.[172]
Fig. 150. BRONZE FIBULA WITH SWASTIKA AND REPRESENTATIONS OF A GOOSE AND A FISH. Bœotia, Greece. De Mortillet, “Musée Préhistorique,” fig. 1265.
Professor Goodyear, and possibly others, ascribe the origin of the Swastika to the Greek fret; but this is doubtful and surely has not been proved. It is difficult, if not impossible, to procure direct evidence on the proposition. Comparisons may be made between the two signs; but this is secondary or indirect evidence, and depends largely on argument. No man is so poor in expedients that he may not argue. Goldsmith’s schoolmaster “e’en tho’ vanquished, he could argue still.” The Greek fret, once established, might easily be doubled or crossed in some of its members, thus forming a figure similar to the Swastika (fig. 139), which would serve as an ornament, but is without any of the characteristics of the Swastika as a symbol. The crossed lines in the Greek fret seem to have been altogether fortuitous. They gave it no symbolic character. It was simply a variation of the fret, and at best was rarely used, and like it, was employed only for ornament and not with any signification—not a sign of benediction, blessing, or good luck, as was the Swastika. The foundation principle of the Greek fret, so far as we can see its use, is its adaptability to form an extended ornamental band, consisting of doubled, bent, and sometimes crossed or interlaced lines, always continuous and never ending, and running between two parallel border lines. Two interlacing lines can be used, crossing each other at certain places, both making continuous meanders and together forming the ornamental band (fig. 139).
In the Greek fret the two lines meandered between the two borders back and forth, up and down, but always forming a continuous line. This seems to be the foundation principle of the Greek fret. In all this requirement or foundation principle the Swastika fails. A row or band of Swastikas can not be made by continuous lines; each one is and must be separated from its fellows. The Swastika has four arms, each made by a single line which comes to an end in each quarter. This is more imperative with the meander Swastika than with the normal. If the lines be doubled on each other to be carried along to form another Swastika adjoining, in the attempt to make a band, it will be found impossible. The four lines from each of the four arms can be projected, but each will be in a different direction, and no band can be made. It is somewhat difficult to describe this, and possibly not of great need. An attempt to carry out the project of making a band of Swastikas, to be connected with each other, or to make them travel in any given direction with continuous lines, will be found impossible. Professor Goodyear attempts to show how this is done by his figure on page 96, in connection with pl. 10, fig. 9, also figs. 173 and 174 (pp. 353 and 354). These figures are given in this paper and are, respectively, Nos. 21, 25, 26, and 27. Exception is taken to the pretended line of evolution in these figures:
(1) There is nothing to show any actual relationship between them. There is no evidence that they agreed either in locality or time, or that there was any unity of thought or design in the minds of their respective artists.
(2) Single specimens are no evidence of custom. This is a principle of the common law which has still a good foundation, and was as applicable in those days as it is now. The transition from the spiral to the Greek fret and from the Greek fret to the Swastika can be shown only by the existence of the custom or habit of the artist to make them both in the same or adjoining epochs of time, and this is not proved by showing a single specimen.
(3) If a greater number of specimens were produced, the chain of evidence would still be incomplete, for the meander of the Greek fret will, as has just been said, be found impossible of transition into the meander Swastika. It (the Swastika) does not extend itself into a band, but if spread at all, it spreads in each of the four directions (figs. 21 and 25). The transition will be found much easier from the Greek meander fret to the normal Swastika and from that to the meander Swastika than to proceed in the opposite direction. Anyone who doubts this has but to try to make the Swastika in a continuous or extended band or line (fig. 26), similar to the Greek fret.
Fig. 151. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE WITH SWASTIKAS AND FIGURES OF BIRDS. Waring, “Ceramic Art In Remote Ages,” pl. 33, fig. 24, and Goodyear, “Grammar of the Lotus,” pl. 46, fig. 5.