206 



SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



start with a clearly recognizable figure of a man many 

 such, an inch or two high, occur on some parts of the 

 cave-walls and then we have all sorts of simplifications 

 and deviations from the more naturalistic initial design, 

 as shown by the rest of the series, ending in a T a 



primitive symbol 

 often arrived at by 



^,,1, "^^ ^f j savage decorative 



X^\ vTvv artists in various 



A ;; )} B parts of the world 



by reducing and 

 grammatizing the 

 human figure. The 

 letters of many 

 alphabets have 



"V 



been simplified in 

 this way from or- 

 iginal picture -like 

 signs or picto- 

 graphs. 



The drawings 

 lettered A, B and C 

 in Fig. 52 represent 

 accurately figures 

 scratched on the 

 clay "spindle- 

 whorls" (before 

 baking), so abun- 

 dant in the remains 

 of the ancient cities on the hill of Hissarlik (Troy), 

 found by Schliemann (see Figs. 42 and 53). These 

 heavy, bun-like spindle-whorls have retained their use 

 and shape since Neolithic times (they are found in 

 the Swiss lake-dwellings) to the present day. Similar 

 whorls were made of modern porcelain, variously de- 



FlG. 52. Simplification (grammatizing) of 

 decorative design. A, a stork walking. 

 B, a stag. C, a stork with wings spread for 

 flying resulting when fully " grammatized " 

 in a curvilinear swastika. A, B, and C, 

 from spindle-whorls found at Hissarlik. 

 D, conventional representation of three 

 flying birds. , grammatized human figure 

 from the walls of caverns in Cantabria. 



