Prehistoric archæologists have found in Europe many specimens of
ornamental sculpture and engraving belonging to the Paleolithic age, but
the cross is not known in any form, Swastika or other. In the Neolithic
age, which spread itself over nearly the entire world, with many geometric
forms of decoration, no form of the cross appears in times of high
antiquity as a symbol or as indicating any other than an ornamental
purpose. In the age of bronze, however, the Swastika appears,
intentionally used, as a symbol as well as an ornament. Whether its first
appearance was in the Orient, and its spread thence throughout prehistoric
Europe, or whether the reverse was true, may not now be determined with
certainty. It is believed by some to be involved in that other warmly
disputed and much-discussed question as to the locality of origin and the
mode and routes of dispersion of Aryan peoples. There is evidence to show
that it belongs to an earlier epoch than this, and relates to the similar
problem concerning the locality of origin and the mode and routes of the
dispersion of bronze. Was bronze discovered in eastern Asia and was its
migration westward through Europe, or was it discovered on the
Mediterranean, and its spread thence? The Swastika spread through the same
countries as did the bronze, and there is every reason to believe them to
have proceeded contemporaneously--whether at their beginning or not, is
undeterminable.
The first appearance of the Swastika was apparently in the Orient,
precisely in what country it is impossible to say, but probably in central
and southeastern Asia among the forerunners or predecessors of the Bramins
and Buddhists. At all events, a religious and symbolic signification was
attributed to it by the earliest known peoples of these localities.
M. Michael Zmigrodzki, a Polish scholar, public librarian at Sucha, near
Cracow, prepared and sent to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago a
manuscript chart in French, showing his opinion of the migration of the
Swastika, which was displayed in the Woman's Building. It was arranged in
groups: The prehistoric (or Pagan) and Christian. These were divided
geographically and with an attempt at chronology, as follows:
I. Prehistoric:
1. India and Bactria.
2. Cyprus, Rhodes.
3. North Europe.
4. Central Europe.
5. South Europe.
6. Asia Minor.
7. Greek and Roman epoch--Numismatics.
II. Christian:
8. Gaul--Numismatics.
9. Byzantine.
10. Merovingian and Carlovingian.
11. Germany.
12. Poland and Sweden.
13. Great Britain.
Lastly he introduces a group of the Swastika in the nineteenth century. He
presented figures of Swastikas from these localities and representing
these epochs. He had a similar display at the Paris Exposition of 1889,
which at its close was deposited in the St. Germain Prehistoric Museum. I
met M. Zmigrodzki at the Tenth International Congress of Anthropology and
Prehistoric Archæology in Paris, and heard him present the results of his
investigations on the Swastika. I have since corresponded with him, and he
has kindly sent me separates of his paper published in the Archives für
Ethnographie, with 266 illustrations of the Swastika; but on asking his
permission to use some of the information in the chart at Chicago, he
informed me he had already given the manuscript chart and the right to
reproduce it to the Chicago Folk-Lore Society. The secretary of this
society declined to permit it to pass out of its possession, though
proffering inspection of it in Chicago.
In his elaborate dissertation Count Goblet d'Alviella[90] shows an earlier
and prehistoric existence of the Swastika before its appearance on the
hill of Hissarlik. From this earlier place of origin it, according to him,
spread to the Bronze age terramares of northern Italy. All this was prior
to the thirteenth century B. C. From the hill of Hissarlik it spread east
and west; to the east into Lycaonia and Caucasus, to the west into Mycenæ
and Greece; first on the pottery and then on the coins. From Greece it
also spread east and west; east to Asia Minor and west to Thrace and
Macedonia. From the terramares he follows it through the Villanova epoch,
through Etruria and Grand Greece, to Sicily, Gaul, Britain, Germany,
Scandinavia, to all of which migration he assigns various dates down to
the second century B. C. It developed westward from Asia Minor to northern
Africa and to Rome, with evidence in the Catacombs; on the eastward it
goes into India, Persia, China, Tibet, and Japan. All this can be made
apparent upon examination of the plate itself. It is introduced as Chart
I, p. 794.
The author enters into no discussion with Count d'Alviella over the
correctness or completeness of the migrations set forth in his chart. It
will be conceded, even by its author, to be largely theoretical and
impossible to verify by positive proof. He will only contend that there is
a probability of its correctness. It is doubted whether he can maintain
his proposition of the constant presence or continued appearance of the
Swastika on altars, idols, priestly vestments, and sepulchral urns, and
that this demonstrates the Swastika to have always possessed the
attributes of a religious symbol. It appears to have been used more
frequently upon the smaller and more insignificant things of everyday
life--the household utensils, the arms, weapons, the dress, the fibulæ,
and the pottery; and while this may be consonant with the attributes of
the talisman or amulet or charm, it is still compatible with the theory of
the Swastika being a sign or symbol for benediction, blessing, good
fortune, or good luck; and that it was rather this than a religious
symbol.
[Illustration: CHART I.--_Probable introduction of the Swastika into
different countries, according to Count Goblet d'Alviella._
["La Migration des Symboles," pl. 3.]]
Count Goblet d'Alviella, in the fourth section of the second chapter[91]
relating to the country of its origin, argues that the Swastika sign was
employed by all the Aryans except the Persians. This omission he explains
by showing that the Swastika in all other lands stood for the sun or for
the sun-god, while the Aryans of Persia had other signs for the same
thing--the _Crux ansata_ and the winged globe. His conclusion is[92] that
there were two zones occupied with different symbols, the frontier between
them being from Persia, through Cyprus, Rhodes, and Asia Minor, to Libya;
that the first belonged to the Greek civilization, which employed the
Swastika as a sun symbol; the second to the Egypto-Babylonian, which
employed the _Crux ansata_ and the winged globe as sun symbols.