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 



savage decorative 



artists in various 



parts of the world 



by reducing and 



*\ ^ / \ 1 j grammatizing the 



| LI JL*>J [\ r human figure. The 



^T" i I ( ( V. letters of many 



Y alphabets have 



^^^ "V*"* / ^Y*"^ been simplified in 



this way from or- 

 iginal picture -like 

 signs or picto- 

 graphs. 



The drawings 



Fig. 52.— Simplification (grammatizing) of lettered A, B and C 

 decorative design. A, a stork walking. J n Fig. 52 represent 

 B, a stag. C, a stork with wings spread for accU r ate ly figures 

 flying — resulting when fully " grammatized J 



in a curvilinear swastika. A, B, and C, scratched On the 

 from spindle-whorls found at Hissarlik. clay "spindle- 

 D, conventional representation of three whorls" (before 

 flying birds. £, grammatized human figure u 1 • \ u 



from the walls of caverns in Cantabria. Dakingj, 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- 



f*/fo&£T 



