_Fains Island and Toco Mounds, Tennessee._--That the Swastika found its
way to the Western Hemisphere in prehistoric times can not be doubted. A
specimen (fig. 237) was taken by Dr. Edward Palmer in the year 1881 from
an ancient mound opened by him on Fains Island, 3 miles from Bainbridge,
Jefferson County, Tenn. It is figured and described in the Third Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,[247] as follows:
A shell ornament, on the convex surface of which a very curious
ornamental design has been engraved. The design, inclosed by a circle,
represents a cross such as would be formed by two rectangular tablets
or slips slit longitudinally and interlaced at right angles to each
other. The lines are neatly and deeply incised. The edge of the
ornament has been broken away nearly all around.
The incised lines of this design (fig. 237) represent the Swastika turned
to the left (though the description does not recognize it as such). It has
small circles with dots in the center, a style of work that may become of
peculiar value on further investigation, but not to be confounded with the
dots or points in what M. Zmigrodzki calls the _Croix swasticale_. The
mound from which this specimen came, and the objects associated with it,
show its antiquity and its manufacture by the aborigines untainted by
contact with the whites. The mound is on the east end of Fains Island. It
was 10 feet in height and about 100 feet in circumference at the base. In
the bed of clay 4 feet beneath the surface were found the remains of 32
human skeletons; of these, only 17 skulls could be preserved. There had
been no regularity in placing the bodies.
[Illustration: Fig. 237. SHELL GORGET WITH ENGRAVED SWASTIKA, CIRCLES, AND
DOTS. Fains Island, Tennessee. Cat. No. 62928, U. S. N. M.]
The peculiar form of this Swastika is duplicated by a Runic Swastika in
Sweden, cited by Ludwig Müller and by Count d'Alviella.[248]
The following objects were found in the mound on Fains Island associated
with the Swastika shell (fig. 237) and described, and many of them
figured:[249] A gorget of the same _Fulgur_ shell (fig. 239); a second
gorget of _Fulgur_ shell with an engraved spider (fig. 278); a pottery
vase with a figure of a frog; three rude axes from four to seven inches in
length, of diorite and quartzite; a pierced tablet of slate; a disk of
translucent quartz 1-3/4 inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch
in thickness; a mass of pottery, much of it in fragments, and a number of
bone implements, including needles and paddle-shaped objects. The shell
objects (in addition to the disks and gorgets mentioned) were pins made
from the columellæ of Fulgur (_Busycon perversum_?) of the usual form and
about four inches in length. There were also found shell beads,
cylindrical in form, an inch in length and upward of an inch in diameter,
with other beads of various sizes and shapes made from marine shells, and
natural specimens of _Io spinosa_, _Unio probatus_.
[Illustration: Fig. 238. ENGRAVED SHELL WITH SWASTIKA, CIRCLES, AND DOTS.
Toco Mound, Monroe County, Tenn. Cat. No. 115624, U. S. N. M.]
[Illustration: PLATE 10. ENGRAVED FULGUR(?) SHELL, RESEMBLING STATUE OF
BUDDHA. Toco Mound, Tennessee. Cat. No. 115560, U. S. N. M.]
The specimen represented in fig. 238 is a small shell from the Big Toco
mound, Monroe County, Tenn., found by Mr. Emmert with skeleton No. 49 and
is fig. 262, Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91,
page 383, although it is not described. This is a circular disk of
_Fulgur_ shell, much damaged around the edge, 1-1/2 inches in diameter,
on which has been engraved a Swastika. It has a small circle and a dot in
the center, around which circle the arms of the Swastika are interlaced.
There are also circles and central dots at each turn of the four arms. The
hatch work in the arc identifies this work with that of other crosses and
a triskelion from the same general locality--figs. 302, 305, and 306, the
former being part of the same find by Mr. Emmert. Fig. 222, a bronze gilt
fibula from Berkshire, England, bears a Swastika of the same style as fig.
238 from Tennessee. The circles and central dots of fig. 238 have a
similarity to Peruvian ornamentation. The form and style, the broad arms,
the circles and central dots, the lines of engravings, show such
similarity of form and work as mark this specimen as a congener of the
Swastika from Fains Island (fig. 237). The other objects found in the
mound associated with this Swastika will be described farther on.
There can be no doubt of these figures being the genuine Swastika, and
that they were of aboriginal workmanship. Their discovery immediately
suggests investigation as to evidences of communication with the Eastern
Hemisphere, and naturally the first question would be, Are there any
evidences of Buddhism in the Western Hemisphere? When I found, a few days
ago, the two before-described representations of Swastikas, it was my
belief that no reliable trace of Buddha or the Buddhist religion had ever
been found among the aboriginal or prehistoric Americans. This statement
was made, as almost all other statements concerning prehistoric man should
be, with reserve, and subject to future discoveries, but without idea that
a discovery of evidence on the subject was so near. In searching the U. S.
National Museum for the objects described in the Second Annual Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology under the title of "Art in Shell among the Ancient
Americans," the writer discovered a neglected specimen of a mutilated and
damaged shell (pl. 10), marked as shown on the back, found by Mr. Emmert,
an employé of the Bureau of Ethnology, in the year 1882. Its original
field number was 267, Professor Thomas's 6542, the Museum number 115562,
and it was found in the Big Toco mound, Monroe County, Tenn. It is not
figured nor mentioned in any of the Bureau reports. It is greatly to be
regretted that this shell is so mutilated. In its present condition no one
can say positively what it is, whether a statue of Buddha or not; but to
all appearances it represents one of the Buddhist divinities. Its
material, similar to the hundred others found in the neighborhood, shows
it to have been indigenous, yet parts of its style are different from
other aboriginal North American images. Attention is called to the slim
waist, the winged arms, the crossed legs, the long feet, breadth of toes,
the many dots and circles shown over the body, with triple lines of
garters or anklets. All these show a different dress from the ancient
North American. The girdle about the waist, and the triangular dress
which, with its decorations and arrangement of dots and circles, cover
the lower part of the body, are to be remarked. While there are several
specimens of aboriginal art from this part of the country which bear these
peculiarities of costumes, positions, appearance, and manner of work,
showing them to have been in use among a portion of the people, yet they
are not part of the usual art products. There is a manifest difference
between this and the ordinary statue of the Indian or of the mound builder
of that neighborhood or epoch.
It is not claimed that this shell proves the migration of Buddhism from
Asia, nor its presence among North American Indians. "One swallow does not
make a summer." But this figure, taken in connection with the Swastika,
presents a set of circumstances corresponding with that possibility which
goes a long distance in forming circumstantial evidence in its favor.
M. Gustave d'Eichthal wrote a series of essays in the Revue Archæologique,
1864-65, in which he collated the evidence and favored the theory of
Buddhist influence in ancient America. Other writers have taken the same
or similar views and have attributed all manner of foreign influence, like
the Lost Tribes of Israel, etc., to the North American Indian,[250] but
all these theories have properly had but slight influence in turning
public opinion in their direction. Mr. V. R. Gandhi, in a recent letter to
the author, says of this specimen (pl. 10):
While Swastika technically means the cross with the arms bent to the
right, later on it came to signify anything which had the form of a
cross; for instance, the posture in which a persons sits with his legs
crossed is called the Swastika posture;[251] also when a person keeps
his arms crosswise over his chest, or a woman covers her breast with
her arms crossed, that particular attitude, is called the Swastika
attitude, which has no connection, however, with the symbolic meaning
of the Swastika with four arms. The figure [pl. 10], a photograph of
which you gave me the other day, has the same Swastika posture. In
matters of concentration and meditation, Swastika posture is
oftentimes prescribed, which is also called Sukhasana, meaning a
posture of ease and comfort. In higher forms of concentration, the
posture is changed from Sukhasana to Padmasana, the posture which is
generally found in Jain and Buddhist images. The band around the
waist, which goes from the navel lower on till it reaches the back
part, has a peculiar significance in the Jain philosophy. The
Shvetamber division of the Jain community have always this kind of
band in their images. The object is twofold: The first is that the
generative parts ought not to be visible; the second is that this band
is considered a symbol of perfect chastity.
There can be no doubt of the authenticity of these objects, nor any
suspicion against their having been found as stated in the labels
attached. They are in the Museum collection, as are other specimens. They
come unheralded and with their peculiar character unknown. They were
obtained by excavations made by a competent and reliable investigator who
had been engaged in mound exploration, a regular employé of the Bureau of
Ethnology, under the direction of Prof. Cyrus Thomas during several
years, and always of good reputation and unblemished integrity. They come
with other objects, labeled in the same way and forming one of a series of
numbers among thousands. Its resemblance to Buddhist statues was
apparently undiscovered or unrecognized, at least unmentioned, by all
those having charge of it, and in its mutilated condition it was laid away
among a score of other specimens of insufficient value to justify notice
or publication, and is now brought to light through accident, no one
having charge of it recognizing it as being different from any other of
the half hundred engraved shells theretofore described. The excavation of
Toco mound is described by Professor Thomas in the Twelfth Annual Report
of the Bureau of Ethnology, pages 379-384.
We can now be governed only by the record as to the objects associated
with this shell (pl. 10), which shows it to have been found with skeleton
No. 8, in Big Toco mound, Monroe County, Tenn., while the Swastika of
figure 238 was found with skeleton No. 49. Toco mound contained fifty-two
skeletons, or, rather, it contained buried objects reported as from that
many skeletons. Those reported as with skeleton No. 8 were, in addition to
this gorget: One polished stone hatchet, one stone pipe, and one bowl with
scalloped rim. Toco mound seems to have been exceedingly rich, having
furnished 198 objects of considerable importance. Association of
discovered objects is one of the important means of furnishing evidence in
prehistoric archæology. It is deemed of sufficient importance in the
present case to note objects from Toco mound associated with the Buddha
statue. They are given in list form, segregated by skeletons:
Skeleton No.