The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration / With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times

by Thomas Wilson

Fig. 311.
OLLA DECORATED WITH GREEK AND MALTESE CROSSES.
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 708.

Fig. 312.
POTTERY WATER VESSEL.
Maltese cross.
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 642.

Plate 20. Palenque Cross, Foliated.
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. XXII, fig. 7.

Dozens of other specimens are in the collections of the U. S. National Museum which would serve to illustrate the extended and extensive use of the cross in great variety of forms, so that no argument as to either the meaning or the extent of the cross can be based on the supposition that these are the only specimens. [Fig. 313] (Cat. No. 132975, U. S. N. M.) shows a vase from Mexico, about 8 inches high, of fine red ware, highly polished, with an elaborate decoration. Its interest here is the Maltese cross represented on each side, with a point and concentric circles, from the outside of which are projecting rays. This may be the symbol of the sun, and if so, is shown in connection with the cross. This style of cross, with or without the sun symbol, is found in great numbers in Mexico—as, for example, the great cross, [pl. 20], from the temple at Palenque.[285]

SYMBOLIC MEANINGS OF THE CROSS.