Hohokam Bowl and Swastika Symbol

[CMD]

This Hohokam red on buff bowl was found on private property near Queen Creek, Az. It dates 750-950 A.D. And was collected by Mina Brooks of Oak Creek, Az years ago on her and her husbands farm at what has become known as the Sonaqui Ruin, discovered in 1930 and salvage excavated for three months in 2013. (More on the Brooks and the dig later in thread). I obtained it because it has a version of a right handed swastika painted in the interior. Always been fascinated with that symbol, not because of it's' most regrettable Nazi association, but because it is a far more ancient symbol found throughout the world. Here are a couple of pages describing that distribution. To the Hopi of northern Az., it was a migration symbol, with the center representng the Hopi Mesas.
Partial swastika petroglyphs are said to represent a clan that is showing how far it has traveled on the migrations dictated by the creator; if the swastika is missing an arm, the clan had not completed their prescribed migration pattern. This is according to the Hopi informants that advised Frank Waters for his classic "Book of the Hopi". In one form or another, the swastika is a common design element on southern Az. Hohokam pottery as well.
http://www.theorionzone.com/swastika...gary_david.pdf

http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths...history-001312

[CMD]

From other collections.
Hohokam:


Anasazi:


Aztec:


This is also a symbol for the 4 directions.
By coincidence a recent article:
How the world loved the swastika - until Hitler stole it

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29644591

[rmartin]

Great stuff Charlie! I have always been fascinated  with the NA use of the symbol. I once found a Navajo rug in an antique shop that just begged me to by it. My threw a fit so it passed on it but still regret that.

[CMD]

rmartin wrote:

Great stuff Charlie! I have always been fascinated with the NA use of the symbol. I once found a Navajo rug in an antique shop that just begged me to by it. My threw a fit so it passed on it but still regret that.

Same here, Ray! I read Frank Water's Book of the Hopi in 1969, as a graduate student in History, and it turned my world upside down. I became convinced the Hopi remembered a history we had forgotten. I was fascinated by what Water's informants had to say about the symbol and it's meaning. And it's found among many other Native Americans besides the Puebloans and Mesoamericans. We went to our local annual rock and mineral show last weekend. Seldom leave without a fossil. But I had this bowl on my mind, left the show empty handed, and made an offer for this that was accepted. Got this little jar from the same seller awhile back. Also Hohokam red on buff, 900-1200 A.D., from Queen Creek, Az., in the Phoenix Basin.

[Ron Kelley]

Thanks Charlie, Very interesting and beautiful artwork.
My thoughts: We should never allow evil to claim and steal the beauty in our world.

[CMD]

Ron Kelley wrote:

Thanks Charlie, Very interesting and beautiful artwork.
My thoughts: We should never allow evil to claim and steal the beauty in our world.

  Amen, Ron! I learned yesterday that in Feb., 1940, the Hopi, Navajo, Papago, and Apache tribes all signed an agreement not to use the swastika in their art as a protest against Hitler's adaptation of the symbol.

[Olden]

.
Some nice SW Pottery you've got Charlie.
I knew the swastika symbol was old, but didn't realize that it went back to the Paleo Era. I think that eventually the Nazi's use of the swastika will be overshadowed, and it'll be restored to it's former status of the four directions -and- good luck - the last holdouts being (of course) the Jewish and German populace.
Hope you don't mind if I tag a bit of trivia on to your already interesting post
Cubism (early 1900's) used the swastika as a hidden structural device that broke the visual plane, unified the resulting chaos, and contributed a characteristic dynamism to the composition.
An illustration from Jouffret's Traité élémentaire de géométrie à quatre dimensions. The book, which influenced Picasso.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckZHqfilTBM

A controversy from 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWkls1v6vJE

A UFO group, known as the Raelian International Movement, has declared July 20 as 'Swastika Rehabilitation Day' with the goal being to take back the controversial symbol from the Nazis and returning it to its former glory as a symbol of good luck.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3605754.html

[CMD]

Thanks for all that, Olden. I found it interesting how completely in the dark the commentator on the Navy building really was. Speaking authoritatively about the meaning of the symbol while being in complete ignorance of the meaning of the symbol.  I understand it's an easy enough "mistake", but to him I would say "thanks for enlightening us. You and your eager beaver Google Earth sleuths can go back to school anytime now."

[sneakygroundbuzzard]

i think some one needs to play that billy madison clip for that guy that was talking about the navy blgd

[painshill]

The earliest knwon swastika symbols are on a piece of mammoth tusk carved as a bird effigy, found in 1908 at the Palaeolithic settlement of Mezine in the Ukraine. Here it is:

[picture from BBC News website]
The torso is engraved with an intricate meander pattern of joined up swastikas which may have had some kind of fertility symbolism since the bird was found with a number of phallic objects. The ivory has been radiocarbon dated at around 15,000 years  Before Present.
And this is a little chilling isn’t it?

[picture from BBC News website]

[Olden]

CMD wrote:

Thanks for all that, Olden. I found it interesting how completely in the dark the commentator on the Navy building really was. Speaking authoritatively about the meaning of the symbol while being in complete ignorance of the meaning of the symbol.  I understand it's an easy enough "mistake", but to him I would say "thanks for enlightening us. You and your eager beaver Google Earth sleuths can go back to school anytime now."

   :laugh:  Yeah, I agree - at least they weren't sporting those big moray eel smiles (and promising to introduce the latest hot new boy band) while being so concerned for our 'education'.    These days we could just pull an 'invisible ' tarp over the structure I guess. This type of fear-mongering/media hysteria started at an early age for us, and'll take at least 3 or 4 generations to pass for the swastika to regain it's historic perspective with the masses.
1943

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzH1iaKVsBM

[Olden]

painshill wrote:

The earliest knwon swastika symbols are on a piece of mammoth tusk carved as a bird effigy, found in 1908 at the Palaeolithic settlement of Mezine in the Ukraine. Here it is:

[picture from BBC News website]
The torso is engraved with an intricate meander pattern of joined up swastikas which may have had some kind of fertility symbolism since the bird was found with a number of phallic objects. The ivory has been radiocarbon dated at around 15,000 years  Before Present.
And this is a little chilling isn’t it?

[picture from BBC News website]

  That mammoth tusk really kept beautifully!

[CMD]

Thanks, guys. I actually did not know it was so widespread in popular Western culture pre-Nazi. Nor did I really know much about it's meaning in Hinduism. That was an excellent BBC doc in that respect.
Interestingly enough, the collector of both these vessels was well known enough in Queen Creek, Az., to be mentioned on this page describing a Hohokam site salvage excavated in Queen Creek. I just stumbled across it researching the town. Her name was Mina Brooks. The video that the highway dept. put together on the dig is an excellent overview of the Hohokam in general and is also at this link.

http://archive.azcentral.com/communi...road-site.html
And, a Navajo rug:

From this page:
http://charleysnavajorugs.com/html/n...g-exhibits.htm
"Above and bellow the water bugs are whirling logs or cross spruce logs which give the impression of circular motion by the bent ends. (Whirling spruce logs crossing each other is a sacred symbol used in Navajo religious ceremonies, sandpaintings, and incorporated into weaving at around 1880's.)
Due to the whirling logs being similar to the Nazi Swastika, Navajo weavers have not been using this symbol since the late 1930's".

[Olden]

.
Some good links there Charlie. I like the use of 'Swirling Logs' over the name of swastika
I really like about 99% of the Navajo rug patterns I see. I gave a nice one from the early 1900's to my sister, with instructions about how to hang it on the wall. She put it on the floor next to her bed, saying it's the first thing she wants her feet to touch in the morning - I sure hope her three cats continue to behave themselves!  :laugh:

[CMD]

Very nice design here. Digital illustration based on an engraved shell cup from Spiro, Ok. Another classic Native American symbol, the horned and feathered serpent.

http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chromesun_4_uktenas_design.jpg