align="right">965

  VII.—Prehistoric Objects Associated with the Swastika, found in Both
Hemispheres, and Believed to have passed by Migration. Spindle whorls 966 Europe 967 Switzerland—Lake dwellings 967 Italy 968 Wurtemburg 968 France 968 North America—pre-Columbian times 969 Mexico 970 Central America 971 Nicaragua 971 South America 972 Chiriqui 972 Colombia 972 Peru 972 Bobbins 975 Europe 975 United States 975   VIII.—Similar Prehistoric Arts, Industries, and Implements in Europe and
America as Evidence of the Migration of Culture. 977 Conclusion 981 Bibliography 984 List of Illustrations 997

 

 

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THE SWASTIKA,

THE EARLIEST KNOWN SYMBOL, AND ITS MIGRATIONS; WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE
MIGRATION OF CERTAIN INDUSTRIES IN PREHISTORIC TIMES.

By Thomas Wilson,
Curator, Department of Prehistoric Anthropology, U. S. National Museum.

 

PREFACE.

An English gentleman, versed in prehistoric archæology, visited me in the summer of 1894, and during our conversation asked if we had the Swastika in America. I answered, “Yes,” and showed him two or three specimens of it. He demanded if we had any literature on the subject. I cited him De Mortillet, De Morgan, and Zmigrodzki, and he said, “No, I mean English or American.” I began a search which proved almost futile, as even the word Swastika did not appear in such works as Worcester’s or Webster’s dictionaries, the Encyclopædic Dictionary, the Encyclopædia Britannica, Johnson’s Universal Cyclopædia, the People’s Cyclopædia, nor Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, his Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, or his Classical Dictionary. I also searched, with the same results, Mollett’s Dictionary of Art and Archæology, Fairholt’s Dictionary of Terms in Art, “L’Art Gothique,” by Gonza, Perrot and Chipiez’s extensive histories of Art in Egypt, in Chaldea and Assyria, and in Phenicia; also “The Cross, Ancient and Modern,” by W. W. Blake, “The History of the Cross,” by John Ashton; and a reprint of a Dutch work by Wildener. In the American Encyclopædia the description is erroneous, while all the Century Dictionary says is, “Same as fylfot,” and “Compare Crux Ansata and Gammadion.” I thereupon concluded that this would be a good subject for presentation to the Smithsonian Institution for “diffusion of knowledge among men.”

The principal object of this paper has been to gather and put in a compact form such information as is obtainable concerning the Swastika, leaving to others the task of adjustment of these facts and their