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

by Thomas Wilson

Fig. 136.
GREEK TAPESTRY.
Coptos, Egypt. First and second centuries, A. D. Forrer,
“Die Gräber- und Textilfunde von Achmin-Panopolis.”

ALGERIA.

Fig. 137.
TORUS OF COLUMN WITH SWASTIKAS.
Roman ruins, Algeria. Waring, “Ceramic Art in
Remote Ages,” pl. 43, fig. 2, quoting from Delamare.

Waring, in his “Ceramic Art in Remote Ages,” discoursing upon the Swastika, which he calls fylfot, shows in pl. 43, fig. 2 (quoting from Delamare), the base of a column from a ruined Roman building in Algeria ([fig. 137]), on the torus of which are engraved two Swastikas, the arms crossing at right angles, all ends bent at right angles to the left. There are other figures (five and six on the same plate) of Swastikas from a Roman mosaic pavement in Algeria. Instead of being square, however, or at right angles, as might ordinarily be expected from mosaic, they are ogee. In one of the specimens the ogee ends finish in a point; in the other they finish in a spiral volute turning upon itself. The Swastika has been found on a tombstone in Algeria.[168]

ASHANTEE.