[Illustration: FIG. 41.–Vase from Cyprus (Mykenæan Age, _circa_ 1200 B.C.); painted with lotus, bird and four swastikas (Metropolitan Museum, New York City).]
[Illustration: FIG. 42.–Terra-cotta spindle-whorl marked with swastikas. Troy, 4th city (Schliemann).]
The Mykenæans and their island relatives obtained the Swastika either from the ancient Bronze-age people of Europe or else gave it to them, since it is very nearly as common as a decoration or symbol on the bronze swords, spear-heads, shields, and other metal work of these prehistoric people of the middle and north of Europe (also occurring in the pottery of the Swiss Lake dwellings), as it is in the islands and adjacent lands of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Swastika is also found abundantly on the early work of the Etruscans, but disappeared from general use in Italy, as it did from the rest of Europe, before historic times, although occasionally used (as in the decoration of the walls of a house at Pompeii). All over Germany, Scandinavia, France, and Britain it is found (Fig. 44) on objects of the Bronze period–sometimes on stone as well as on bronze utensils, ornaments, and weapons. A few objects of Anglo-Saxon age are ornamented with it–especially remarkable is a piece of pottery of that age from Norfolk (Fig. 45).
[Illustration: FIG. 43.–Ornament from an archaic (pre-Hellenic) Bœotian vase, showing several swastikas, Greek crosses and two serpents (from Goodyear).]
[Illustration: FIG. 43. (_bis_).–Swastika in bronze repoussé, from the necropolis of Koban, Caucasus (after Chantre "Le Caucase"), about 500 B.C.]
[Illustration: FIG. 44.–Silver-plated bronze horse-gear from Scandinavia, showing two swastikas, and below a complex elaboration of a swastika. (Bronze Age, about 1500 B.C.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 45.–Anglo-Saxon urn from Shropham, Norfolk, ornamented by twenty small hand-made swastikas stamped into the clay. (British Museum.)]
The history of the "Swastika" would be remarkable enough if it ended here with the disappearance of its use in Europe in prehistoric times and its continued use in the Far East and India. But the most curious fact about it is that we find it as a very common and favourite decoration and device among the native tribes in North America and Mexico, and exceptionally in Brazil. It is found in use among the Indians of Kansas and other tribes–as a device in pottery, in bead-work (Fig. 46), patch-work, quill-embroidery, and other decorative fabrics. The Indians called Sacs, Kickapoos, and Pottawottamies, who worship the sun (which is associated with the Swastika in China), call it by a native name signifying "the luck." It is also found as a decorative design in the most ancient remains of man in America, dating (so far as can be guessed) from a thousand years or more before Columbus (Fig. 47).