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

The same thing may be true with regard to the migrations of prehistoric civilization. There may have been communication between the countries by which such objects as the polished stone hatchet, the bow and arrow, the leaf-shaped implement, chipped arrow- and spear-heads, scrapers, spindle-whorls, the arts of pottery making, of weaving, of drilling and sawing stone, etc., passed from one to the other, and the same of the Swastika; yet these may all have been brought over in sporadic and isolated cases, importing simply the germ of their knowledge, leaving the industry to be independently worked out on this side. Certain manifestations of culture, dissimilar to those of the Old World, are found in America; we have the rude notched ax, the grooved ax, stemmed scraper, perforator, mortar and pestle, pipes, tubes, the ceremonial objects which are found here in such infinite varieties of shape and form, the metate, the painted pottery, etc., all of which belong to the American Indian civilization, but have no prototype in the prehistoric Old World. These things were never brought over by migration or otherwise. They are indigenous to America.

Objects common to both hemispheres exist in such numbers, of such infinite detail and difficulty of manufacture, that the probabilities of their migration or passage from one country to another is infinitely greater than that they were the result of independent invention. These common objects are not restricted to isolated cases. They are great in number and extensive in area. They have been the common tools and utensils such as might have belonged to every man, and no reason is known why they might not have been used by, and so represent, the millions of prehistoric individuals in either hemisphere. This great number of correspondences between the two hemispheres, and their similarity as to means and results is good evidence of migration, contact, or communication between the peoples; while the extent to which the common industries were carried in the two continents, their delicacy and difficulty of operation, completes the proof and forces conviction.

It is not to be understood in the few foregoing illustrations that the number is thereby exhausted, or that all have been noted which are within the knowledge of the author. These have been cited as illustrative of the proposition and indicating possibilities of the argument. If a completed argument in favor of prehistoric communication should be prepared, it would present many other illustrations. These could be found, not only among the objects of industry, utensils, etc., but in the modes of manufacture and of use which, owing to their number and the extent of territory which they cover, and the difficulty of accomplishment, would add force to the argument.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SWASTIKA.

8º, pp. v-vi, 1-560, fig. 429.

Grooved ax, Pemberton, N. J. Inscription of Swastika denounced as a fraud, p. 32.