The three following figures represent clay and stone bobbins, all from the
State of Kentucky. Fig. 369 shows a bobbin elaborately decorated, from a
mound near Maysville, Ky. It has a hole drilled longitudinally through
the center. The end shows a cross of the Greek form with this hole in the
center of the cross. Fig. 370 shows a similar object from Lexington, Ky.,
sent by the Kentucky University. It is of fine-grained sandstone, is
drilled longitudinally through the center and decorated as shown. The end
view shows a series of concentric circles with rows of dots in the
intervals. Fig. 371 shows a similar object of fine-grained sandstone from
Lewis County, Ky. It is also drilled longitudinally, and is decorated with
rows of zigzag lines as shown. The end view represents four consecutive
pentagons laid one on top of the other, which increase in size as they go
outward, the hole through the bobbin being in the center of these
pentagons, while the outside line is decorated with spikes or rays
extending to the periphery of the bobbin, all of which is said to
represent the sun. The specimen shown in fig. 372, of fine-grained
sandstone, is from Maysville, Ky. The two ends are here represented
because of the peculiarity of the decoration. In the center is the hole,
next to it is a rude form of Greek cross which on one end is repeated as
it goes farther from the center; on the other, the decoration consists of
three concentric circles, one interval of which is divided by radiating
lines at regular intervals, each forming a rectangle. Between the outer
lines and the periphery are four radiating rays which, if completed all
around, might form a sun symbol. Bobbins of clay have been lately
discovered in Florida by Mr. Clarence B. Moore and noted by Professor
Holmes.
[Illustration: Fig. 369. BOBBIN (?) FROM A MOUND NEAR MAYSVILLE, KENTUCKY.
Cat. No. 16748, U. S. N. M.]
[Illustration: Fig. 370. BOBBIN (?) FROM LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY. Cat. No.
16691, U. S. N. M.]
[Illustration: Fig. 371. BOBBIN (?) OF FINE-GRAINED SANDSTONE. Lewis
County, Kentucky. Cat. No. 59681, U. S. N. M.]
Thus we find some of the same objects which in Europe were made and used
by prehistoric man and which bore the Swastika mark have migrated to
America, also in prehistoric times, where they were put to the same use
and served the same purpose. This is certainly no inconsiderable testimony
in favor of the migration of the sign.
VIII.--SIMILAR PREHISTORIC ARTS, INDUSTRIES, AND IMPLEMENTS IN EUROPE AND
AMERICA AS EVIDENCE OF THE MIGRATION OF CULTURE.
The prehistoric objects described in the foregoing chapter are not the
only ones common to both Europe and America. Related to the spindle-whorls
and bobbins is the art of weaving, and it is perfectly susceptible of
demonstration that this art was practiced in the two hemispheres in
prehistoric times. Woven fabrics have been found in the Swiss lake
dwellings, in Scandinavia, and in nearly all parts of Europe. They
belonged to the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
[Illustration: Fig. 372. VIEW SHOWING BOTH ENDS OF A BOBBIN(?) OF
FINE-GRAINED SANDSTONE. Maysville, Kentucky. Cat. No. 16747, U. S. N. M.]
Figs. 373 and 374 illustrate textile fabrics in the Bronze Age. Both
specimens are from Denmark, and the National Museum possesses another
specimen (Cat. No. 136615) in all respects similar. While prehistoric
looms may not have been found in Europe to be compared with the looms of
modern savages in America, yet these specimens of cloth, with the hundreds
of others found in the Swiss lake dwellings, afford the most indubitable
proof of the use of the looms in both countries during prehistoric times.
Complementary to this, textile fabrics have been found in America, from
the Pueblo country of Utah and Colorado, south through Mexico, Central and
South America, and of necessity the looms with which they were made were
there also. It is not meant to be said that the looms of the two
hemispheres have been found, or that they or the textile fabrics are
identical. The prehistoric looms have not been found in Europe, and those
in America may have been affected by contact with the white man. Nor is it
meant to be said that the textile fabrics of the two hemispheres are
alike in thread, stitch, or pattern. But these at best are only details.
The great fact remains that the prehistoric man of the two hemispheres had
the knowledge to spin fiber into thread, to wind it on bobbins, and to
weave it into fabrics; and whatever differences there may have been in
pattern, thread, or cloth, they were finally and substantially the same
art, and so are likely to have been the product of the same invention.
While it is not the intention to continue this examination among the
prehistoric objects of the two hemispheres in order to show their
similarity and thus prove migration, contact, or communication, yet it may
be well to mention some of them, leaving the argument or proof to a future
occasion.
The polished stone hatchets of the two hemispheres are substantially the
same. There are differences of material, of course, for in each country
the workman was obliged to use such material as was obtainable. There are
differences in form between the polished stone hatchets of the two
hemispheres, but so there are differences between different localities in
the same hemisphere. Some hatchets are long, others short, some round,
others flat, some have a pointed end, others a square or nearly square or
unfinished end; some are large, others small. But all these differences
are to be found equally well pronounced within each hemisphere.
[Illustration: Fig. 373. WOMAN'S WOOLEN DRESS FOUND IN AN OAK COFFIN AT
BORUM-ESHOI, DENMARK. Bronze Age. Report of the Smithsonian Institution
(U. S. National Museum), 1892, pl. CI, fig 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 374. DETAIL OF DRESS SHOWN IN THE PRECEDING FIGURE.]
Scrapers have also been found in both hemispheres and in all ages. There
are the same differences in material, form, and appearance as in the
polished stone hatchet. There is one difference to be mentioned of this
utensil--_i. e._, in America the scraper has been sometimes made with a
stem and with notches near the base, after the manner of arrow- and
spear-heads, evidently intended to aid, as in the arrow- and spear-head,
in fastening the tool in its handle. This peculiarity is not found in
Europe, or, if found, is extremely rare. It is considered that this may
have been caused by the use of a broken arrow- or spear-head, which seems
not to have been done in Europe. But this is still only a difference in
detail, a difference slight and insignificant, one which occurs seldom and
apparently growing out of peculiar and fortuitous conditions.
The art of drilling in stone was known over an extended area in
prehistoric times, and we find innumerable examples which must have been
performed in both hemispheres substantially in the same manner and with
the same machine.
The art of sawing stone was alike practiced during prehistoric times in
the two hemispheres. Many specimens have been found in the prehistoric
deposits of both.
The aboriginal art of making pottery was also carried on in the same or a
similar manner in both hemispheres. The examples of this art are as
numerous as the leaves on the trees. There were differences in the
manipulation and treatment, but the principal fact remains that the art
was the same in both countries. Not only were the products greatly
similar, but the same style of geometric decoration by incised lines is
common to both. Greater progress in making pottery was made in the Western
than in the Eastern Hemisphere during prehistoric times.
The wheel was unknown in both hemispheres, and in both the manipulation of
clay was by hand. True, in the Western Hemisphere there was greater
dexterity and a greater number of methods employed. For example, the vase
might be built up with clay inside a basket, which served to give both
form and decoration; it was coiled, the damp clay being made in a string
and so built up by a circular movement, drawing the side in or out as the
string of clay was laid thereon, until it reached the top; it may have
been decorated by the pressure of a textile fabric, real or simulated,
into the damp clay. A few years ago it would have been true to have said
that pottery decorated in this manner was peculiar to the Western
Hemisphere, and that it had never been found in the Eastern Hemisphere,
but Prince Poutjatine has lately found on his property, Bologoje, in the
province of Novgorod, midway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, many
pieces of prehistoric pottery which bear evidence of having been made in
this manner, and while it may be rare in the Eastern Hemisphere, it is
similar in these respects to thousands of pieces of prehistoric pottery in
North America.
One of the great puzzles for archæologists has been the prehistoric jade
implements found in both countries. The raw material of which these were
made has never been found in sufficient quantities to justify anyone in
saying that it is indigenous to one hemisphere and not to the other. It
may have been found in either hemisphere and exported to the other. But of
this we have no evidence except the discovery in both of implements made
of the same material. This material is dense and hard. It is extremely
difficult to work, yet the operations of sawing, drilling, carving, and
polishing appear to have been conducted in both hemispheres with such
similarity as that the result is practically the same.
Prehistoric flint-chipping was also carried on in both hemispheres with
such similarity of results, even when performing the most difficult and
delicate operations, as to convince one that there must have been some
communication between the two peoples who performed them.
The bow and arrow is fairly good evidence of prehistoric migration,
because of the singularities of the form and the intricacies of the
machinery, and because it is probably the earliest specimen of a machine
of two separate parts, by the use of which a missile could be sent at a
greater distance and with greater force than if thrown by hand. It is
possible that the sling was invented as early as the bow and arrow,
although both were prehistoric and their origin unknown.
The bow and arrow was the greatest of all human inventions--greatest in
that it marked man's first step in mechanics, greatest in adaptation of
means to the end, and as an invented machine it manifested in the most
practical and marked manner the intellectual and reasoning power of man
and his superiority over the brute creation. It, more than any other
weapon, demonstrated the triumph of man over the brute, recognizing the
limitations of human physical capacity in contests with the brute. With
this machine, man first successfully made up for his deficiency in his
contests with his enemies and the capture of his game. It is useless to
ask anything of history about the beginnings of the bow and arrow;
wherever history appears it records the prior existence, the almost
universal presence, and the perfected use of the bow and arrow as a
weapon. Yet this machine, so strange and curious, of such intricacy of
manufacture and difficulty of successful performance, had with all its
similarities and likenesses extended in prehistoric times almost
throughout the then inhabited globe. It is useless to specify the time,
for the bow and arrow existed earlier than any time of which we know; it
is useless for us to specify places, for it was in use throughout the
world wherever the world was occupied by neolithic man.
Imitative creature as was man, and slow and painful as were his steps in
progress and in invention during his infancy on earth, when he knew
nothing and had everything yet to learn, it is sufficiently wonderful that
he should have invented the bow and arrow as a projectile machine for his
weapons; but it becomes doubly and trebly improbable that he should have
made duplicate and independent inventions thereof in the different
hemispheres. If we are to suppose this, why should we be restricted to a
separate invention for each hemisphere, and why may we not suppose that he
made a separate invention for each country or each distant tribe within
the hemisphere? Yet we are met with the astonishing but, nevertheless,
true proposition that throughout the entire world the bow and arrow
existed in the early times mentioned, and was substantially the same
machine, made in the same way, and serving the same purpose.