[Illustration: Fig. 36. BRONZE PIN-HEAD FROM AKTHALA. De Morgan, "Au
Caucase," fig. 178.]
[Illustration: Fig. 37. SWASTIKA MARK ON BLACK POTTERY. Cheithan-thagh. De
Morgan, "Au Caucase," fig. 179.]
[Illustration: Fig. 38. FRAGMENT OF BRONZE CEINTURE. Swastika repoussé.
Necropolis of Koban, Caucasus. Chantre, "Le Caucase," pl. 11, fig. 3.]
In Caucasus, M. E. Chantre[131] found the Swastika in great purity of
form. Fig. 38 represents portions of a bronze plaque from that country,
used on a ceinture or belt. Another of slightly different style, but with
square cross and arms bent at right angles, is represented in his pl. 8,
fig. 5. These belonged to the first age of iron, and much of the art was
intricate.[132] It represented animals as well as all geometric forms,
crosses, circles (concentric and otherwise), spirals, meanders, chevrons,
herring bone, lozenges, etc. These were sometimes cast in the metal, at
other times repoussé, and again were engraved, and occasionally these
methods were employed together. Fig. 39 shows another form, frequently
employed and suggested as a possible evolution of the Swastika, from the
same locality and same plate. Fig. 40 represents signs reported by
Waring[133] as from Asia Minor, which he credits, without explanation, to
Ellis's "Antiquities of Heraldry."
The specimen shown in fig. 41 is reported by Waring,[134] quoting
Rzewusky,[135] as one of the several branding marks used on Circassian
horses for identification.
[Illustration: Fig. 39. BRONZE AGRAFE OR BELT PLATE. Triskelion in spiral.
Koban, Caucasus. Chantre, "Le Caucase," pl. 11, fig. 4.]
Mr. Frederick Remington, the celebrated artist and literateur, has an
article, "Cracker Cowboy in Florida,"[136] wherein he discourses of the
forgery of brands on cattle in that country. One of his genuine brands is
a circle with a small cross in the center. The forgery consists
in elongating each arm of the cross and turning it with a scroll,
forming an ogee Swastika (fig. 13_d_), which, curiously enough, is
practically the same brand used on Circassian horses (fig. 41). Max
Ohnefalsch-Richter[137] says that instruments of copper (_audumbaroasih_)
are recommended in the Atharva-Veda to make the Swastika, which represents
the figure 8; and thus he attempts to account for the use of that mark
branded on the cows in India (supra, p. 772), on the horses in Circassia
(fig. 41), and said to have been used in Arabia.
[Illustration: Fig. 40. SWASTIKA SIGNS FROM ASIA MINOR. Waring, "Ceramic
Art in Remote Ages," pl. 41, figs. 5 and 6.]
[Illustration: Fig. 41. BRAND FOR HORSES IN CIRCASSIA. Ogee Swastika,
tetraskelion. Waring, "Ceramic Art in Remote Ages," pl. 42, fig. 20_c_.]