The Swastika
Prehistoric Objects Associated With the Swastika, Found In both Hemispheres, and Believed to Have Passed by Migration
The foregoing are the differences; but with all the number and extent of these differences the fact remains that the whorls of the two hemispheres as to be the same invention. The whorls, when put upon their spindles, form the same machine in both countries. They were intended for and they accomplish the same purpose, and the method of their performance is practically the same. While the similarity of the art of spinning and the mechanism (i, e., the spindle and whorl) by which it is accomplished may not prove conclusively that it migrated from Eastern Hemisphere, nor yet show positive connection of communication between the two peoples, it goes a long way toward establishing such migration or communication. The similarity in the art and its mechanism appears to the author to show such resemblance with the like culture in the Eastern Hemisphere, and is so harmonious with the theory of migration or contact or communication, that if there shall be other objects found which either by their number or condition would prove to be a well-authenticated instance of migration from or contact or communication between the countries, the evidence of the similarity of the spindle-whorls would form a valuable addition to and largely increase the evidence to establish the main fact. Until that piece of well-authenticated evidence has been obtained, the question must, so far as concerns spindle-whorls, remain only a probability. The differences between them are of manner, and not of matter; in size and degree, but not in kind, and are not other or greater than might easily arise from local adaptation of an imported invention. Compare the Navajo spindle (pl. 22) with that from Wurtemburg, Germany (fig. 356), and these with the spindles and whorls from Peru (pl. 23). These facts are entirely in harmony with the possibility that the spindle and whorl, as a machine for spinning,was a single invention, and that its slight differentiations resulted from its employment by different peoples --- the result of its intertribal migrations. For purposes of comparison, and to show the similarity of these objects in Europe, the author has introduced a series of spindle-whorls from Troy, Hissarlik (pls. 24 and 25). These belong to the U. S. National Museum, and form part of the valuable collection from Mmme. Schliemann, the gift by her talented husband to the people of the United States as a token of is remembrance and grateful feelings toward them.
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