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The Swastika

Dispersion of the Swastika

Page 56

natural color, with figures in maroon. It belongs to the British Museum. It bears on the front side five Swastikas, all of different styles; three turn to the right, two to the left. The main arms cross at right angles, but the ends of four are bent at right angles, while one is curved (ogee). Three have the ends bent (at right angles) four times, making a meander form, while two make only one bent. They seem not to be placed with any reference to each other, or to any other object, and are scattered over the field as chance or luck might determined. A specimen of Swastika interesting to prehistoric archæologists is that on a vase from Cyprus (Musée St. Germain, No. 21557), on which is represented an arrowhead, stemmed, barbed, and suspended by its points between the Swastika. (1)
      Dr. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter presented a paper before the Société d'Anthropologie in Paris, December 6, 1888, reported in the Bulletin of that year (pp. 668-681). it was entitled "La Croix gammée et la Croix contonnée en Chypre." (The Croix gammeé is the Swastika, while the Croix cantonnée is the cross with dots, the Croix swasticale of Zmigrodzki.) In this paper the author describes his finding the Swastika during his excavations into prehistoric Cyprus. On the first page of his paper the following statement appears:

      The Swastika comes from India as an ornament in form of a cone (conique) of metal, gold, silver, or bronze gilt, worn on the ears (see G. Perrot: "Histoire de l'Art," III, p. 562 et fig. 384), and nose-rings (see S. Reinach: "Chronique d'Orient," 3c série, t. IV, 1886). I was the first to make known the nose-ring worn by the goddess Aphrodite-Astarte, even at Cyprus. In the Indies the women still wear these ornaments in their nostrils and ears. The fellahin of Egypt also wear similar jewelry; but as Egyptian art gives us no example of the usage of these ornaments in antiquity, it is only from the Indies that the Phenicians could have borrowed them. The nose-ring is unknown in the antiquity of all countries which surrounded the island of Cyprus.
      The first pages of his memoir are employed in demonstrating that

ENDNOTES:

1. Matériaux pour l'Histoire Primitive et Naturelle de l'Homme, 1881, XVI, p. 146 [Back]

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