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Where the Swastika Was Found 12,000 Years Before Hitler Made Us Uncomfortable About I




Minoan pottery from Crete. The Minoan civilization flourished from 3,000 to 1,100 B.C. (Agon S. Buchholz/Wikimedia Commons)
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Swastika from a 2nd century A.D. Roman mosaic. (Maciej Szczepańczyk/Wikimedia Commons



A srivatsa (swastika) sign at Nata-dera Temple, Japan. (Cindy Drukier/Epoch Times)



From the Sican/Lambayeque civilization in Peru, which flourished 750 to 1375 A.D. (Wikimedia Commons)




Ancient Macedonian helmet with swastika marks, 350-325 B.C., found at Herculanum. (Cabinet des Medailles, Paris/Wikimedia Commons)



A Buddha statue on Lantau Island, Hong Kong with a swastika symbol on the chest. (Shutterstock*)

A 3,000-year-old necklace found in the Rasht Province of Iran. (Wikimedia Commons)

The aviator Matilde Moisant(1878-1964) wearing a swastika medallion in 1912; the symbol was popular as a good luck charm with early aviators. (Wikimedia Commons)

A mandala-like swastika, composed of Hebrew letters and surrounded by a circle and a mystical hymn in Aramaic. Appears in the Kabbalistic work "Parashat Eliezer" by Rabbi Eliezer ben Isaac Fischel of Strizhov, 18th century. (Wikimedia Commons)

Bronze Age Mycenaean "doll" with human, solar and tetragammadion (swastika) symbols. (Louvre Museum/Wikimedia Commons)

Swastika on a Greek silver stater coin from Corinth, 6th century BC. (Wikimedia Commons)

Gold weight used by the Akan, specifically Ashanti, people of Ghana to measure gold. (Wikimedia Commons)


Mosaic swastika in excavated Byzantine church in Shavei Tzion, Israel. (Wikimedia Commons)


Bone comb with swastika found in the Nydam Mose as depicted in the 19th century book “Nydam Mosefund.” Nydam Mose, also known as Nydam Bog, is an archaeological site located near Sonderborg, Denmark. It contains many artifacts from 200 to 400 A.D. (Wikimedia Commons)


The “Iron Man” statue. The 1,000-year-old Buddha statue from Tibet was carved from a rare meteorite that landed on Earth about 15 millennia ago. (Elmar Buchner)

The earliest known swastika was found in 10,000 B.C. in the Ukraine, carved on mammoth ivory.
Its meaning has been a good one for thousands of years. However, Adolf Hitler appropriated it in the 20th century, establishing its association with tragedy, death, and destruction. The symbol is found not only in one ancient civilization, but in ancient civilizations all over the world, bespeaking its deep connection with humanity and human culture.
Aztecs and Mayans used the symbol on burial mounds, clothing and jewelry. In Europe, such symbols can be found in Roman catacombs, in churches, on plaza stones, and graves.
The word swastika is Sanskrit: swa means “higher self,” asti means “being,” and ka is a suffix. The word may be understood as “being with higher self.” It is also known as srivatsa.
It has an especially strong connection to Buddhism in India, which was then transmitted to China. The srivatsa is often found on Buddha sculptures, and it is believed to be a sign displayed by Buddhas to the people who first depicted it—a symbol with profound and heavenly meanings. It has been understood over the ages as a symbol of good luck, a symbol of purity, and other positive attributes. Hitler sought to connect the symbol’s power and purity to his doctrine of establishing a “pure” race.
The shadow cast on the symbol by the Nazis is slowly being lifted. The Jewish Virtual Library, an American-Israeli Enterprise, has addressed the history of the Swastika positively.
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