The Swastika

Originally published under the auspices of the United States National
Museum (now the Smithsonian), this book is the most comprehensive
scholarly study of the history and use of the ancient swastika symbol ever
undertaken. Its author, Thomas Wilson, participated in the excavation
of an Indian burial mound in Ohio where several large copper swastikas
were discovered. This unusual find sparked Wilson's curiosity and led to
the research that ultimately became this book.

The swastika symbol occurs in Mesopotamia and India as early as 8000
years ago, and prolifically on artifacts unearthed at the site of ancient
Troy. It also appears on hundreds of Greek ceramic objects of the
Geometric period, dating between the tenth and seventh centuries BC.
Its use by indigenous peoples along the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers
before 300 AD has raised serious questions about a possible diffusion from
Eurasia. How or when this may have occurred, however, has never been
established, nor has the underlying significance of the swastika ever been
fully understood.

The front cover illustration is from the book "Tree of Life, Mythical
Archetype" by Gregory Haynes, also published by Symbolon Press. Haynes
was the first to observe that the four largest rivers on the four continents
bordering the Atlantic Ocean (the Nile, Amazon, Mississippi, and Baltic)
stand in relation to each other as do the outer arms of an enormous
swastika. In "Tree of Life, Mythical Archetype" he persuasively argues that
ancient navigators mapped these four rivers and derived the swastika
from them.

This is a facsimile edition of Wilson's 1896 report, which includes all of his writings on the subject of the swastika. The text quality is generally good, while the quality of the more than 450 illustrations is very good to excellent.