206 



SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



start with a clearly recognizable figure of a man— rmany 

 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 

 savage decorative 

 artists in various 

 parts of the world 

 by reducing and 

 grammatizing the 

 human figure. The 

 letters of many 

 alphabets have 

 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- 



E 

 Fig. 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. 

 Z), conventional representation of three 

 flying birds. E, grammatized human figure 

 from the walls of caverns in Cantabria. 



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- 



