Fig. 238.
ENGRAVED SHELL WITH SWASTIKA, CIRCLES, AND DOTS.
Toco Mound, Monroe County, Tenn. Cat. No. 115624, 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 1¾ 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.
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, 1½ 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.