Swastikas

The swastika is an ancient symbol, one whose modern history has almost completely eclipsed its origins. Before the 20th century, this simple geometric form (a cross with arms bent at right angles) appeared across the globe for millennia, from the Indian subcontinent to the Americas. In the ancient Mediterranean, it was a common decorative element, found on objects from Neolithic Anatolia to the Iron Age Aegean [1, p. 9]. Because it turns up so widely, a swastika on its own says little about where a potter learned it; the useful questions concern when it appears in a given region, on what, and beside which other motifs.

Cyprus lay on the sea routes linking the Levant, Egypt and the Aegean [2, p. 311; 3, p. 18], and its material culture took in foreign forms and recast them in local terms [4, p. 6; 5]. The swastika is a clear case. It is frequent on the island's Iron Age pottery, yet its meaning is still debated, and some of the leading specialists in Cypriot archaeology have said plainly that they do not know what it signified [6].

In Cyprus the motif has contested first appearances in the Bronze Age, becomes common in the Iron Age, and fades out at the end of the Cypro-Archaic period. This entry follows that sequence, then sets out the main proposals for what the sign meant.

The Earliest Appearances: A Bronze Age Debate

The question of when the swastika first appeared in Cyprus is not straightforward. The archaeological evidence is ambiguous, presenting a contradiction between older and more recent findings. For much of the 20th century, the consensus, articulated by John Daniel in his 1937 study of tombs at Kourion, was that the swastika was absent from the earlier pottery of Bronze Age Cyprus [7, p. 77]. In this view, the motif was an introduction of the Late Cypriot III period (c. 1200–1050 BCE), appearing on locally made pottery that emerged after the major disruptions at the end of the Late Bronze Age [7, p. 77].

More recent scholarship, however, has challenged this timeline. Researchers have recorded what appear to be reversed swastikas and related symbols on Red Polished I vases and terracotta spindle whorls from sites like Bellapais Vounous and Marki Alonia, dating to the Early Cypriot I-II periods in the late third millennium BCE [6]. If this identification is correct, it pushes the motif’s presence on the island back by more than a thousand years. This earlier appearance would suggest that the swastika was part of Cyprus’s decorative repertoire long before the end of the Bronze Age, perhaps arriving through early contacts with Anatolia, where the symbol had a long and continuous history from the Neolithic period onward [1, p. 9]. The earliest marks on Cypriot pottery, some of which resemble later script signs, appear in the Philia phase (c. 2500–2350 BCE), a time of new metal-working technologies and influences that likely came through Anatolia [10, p. 88]. The swastika could well have been part of this early transfer of symbols and ideas.

A black-topped Red Polished tulip bowl of Early Cypriot I-II in the Drakopoulos collection carries an incised, lime-filled cross whose four double-line arms bend and coil into spirals, a form often called a swastika. It is flanked by small ring-and-dot circles and spiral hooks, above an arcade of concentric semicircles on the black rim zone.

While the geometric motif’s first appearance remains debatable, a conceptually related form appears much earlier, in the Chalcolithic period (c. 3500–2500 BCE). A small number of distinctive cruciform figurines, carved from picrolite, feature arms bent into what has been termed a “Swastika Position” [12, p. 304; 14, p. 49]. On these figures one hand points up and the other down, a gesture whose meaning is uncertain. Morris read it as holding a child, Karageorghis as a gesture performed in a cult ritual, and Flourentzos as a representation of motion [12, p. 304]. The label is a modern description of the pose; it does not show that the figurine makers knew the painted sign.

By the Late Bronze Age, the swastika motif begins to appear more definitively in the archaeological record, though still sporadically. It appears in Late Cypriot III tombs at Kourion, where Daniel, writing before the Early Cypriot examples had been recorded, treated it as a new element alongside other non-Mycenaean motifs [7, p. 77]. The swastika is also listed as a motif found on Proto White Painted ware, a locally produced ceramic type that marks the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age (c. 1125–1050 BCE) [16, p. 94].

This Late Bronze Age appearance, whether a re-introduction or a revival, occurred during a period of intense international connectivity. The swastika was an “age-old motive found sporadically throughout the Aegean and the East” [7, p. 77]. Its diffusion is thought to be part of an expansive Anatolian trade network that connected Mesopotamia to the Aegean, with Cyprus as a key node [1, p. 20]. The presence of the swastika on a Proto White Painted calathos (a wide-mouthed basin) alongside a goat, a tree, and zigzag patterns has been interpreted as a blend of Syro-Palestinian and Anatolian artistic tastes [16, p. 92]. The evidence from this period suggests that Cypriot artisans were drawing from a wide pool of external symbols. The persistence of a motif, as was later the case for the goat-and-tree icon, points to a particular local affinity and preference [17, p. 66; 18, p. 75].

The Iron Age Peak

The Iron Age (c. 1050–480 BCE) marks the high point of the swastika’s use in ancient Cyprus. What had been a rare and contested sign in the Bronze Age became a standard element in the repertoire of the island's vase painters. Its popularity grew through the Cypro-Geometric period (c. 1050–750 BCE) and peaked during the Cypro-Archaic period (c. 750–480 BCE), after which it faded from use [6; 19].

In the Cypro-Geometric period, the swastika was a characteristic feature of White Painted Ware, one of the main ceramic classes of the time [20]. Its adoption was part of the development of a new, distinctly Cypriot pottery style that synthesized Late Mycenaean and local traditions [20]. The British Museum's Cypro-Geometric White Painted footed cup is catalogued with red and black swastikas and chevrons on its exterior. In the Drakopoulos collection the motif appears on a White Painted trefoil jug of late Cypro-Geometric to Cypro-Archaic I date, with at least four small rectilinear swastikas scattered across its shoulder and a painted eye on the side lobe of the mouth. Scholars such as Einar Gjerstad argued that while the swastika appeared on some early Mycenaean pottery (LH IIA-B), it was absent from the later phases that most influenced Cyprus. This suggests the Iron Age Cypriot swastika was not a direct Mycenaean derivation but was likely drawn from other sources, probably Levantine or Anatolian, or was a revival of a local tradition [20].

It was in the Cypro-Archaic period that the swastika became ubiquitous. It is very common on the pottery of Type IV, which dates from Cypro-Archaic I, and Gjerstad suggested that Cyprus may have even contributed to the ornament's penetration into Greece during this time [20]. The motif is especially prominent in the celebrated pictorial pottery produced in the eastern part of the island, centered around the kingdom of Salamis [21, p. 341]. It is frequently found on Bichrome Ware amphorae, jugs, and footed bowls [21, p. 344]. The Drakopoulos White Painted jug with painted eyes, chevron arrow and swastika, shown here, pairs a small swastika with the arrow motif, a vertical chain of dots capped by an arrowhead, and has an eye painted on each side of its pinched mouth so that the spout becomes a face; the same combination of swastika and eyes on the spout occurs on an oinochoe at Vassar dated to the 8th to 7th century BCE. Here, its function was often that of a supplementary or filling ornament. It appears as a small element within panels or used to flank larger, more complex geometric or pictorial scenes [21, p. 344; 20]. Painters placed it by the same rules as the rest of the ornament, in set positions within the panel scheme.

One of the most striking aspects of the swastika’s use in the Cypro-Archaic period is its close and repeated association with depictions of birds. A study of bird iconography on Archaic vases found that the swastika was the second most frequent accompanying motif, surpassed only by the lotus flower [23, p. 144]. Artists typically placed the swastika by the bird’s head (above, below, or in front of the beak) or over its back [23, p. 144]. A Cypro-Archaic I oinochoe in the Peabody Museum at Harvard is catalogued with a bird and reversed swastikas. This consistent pairing is so strong that it has led some scholars to propose that the swastika was itself a schematic symbol for a bird [6]. A Cypro-Geometric III Bichrome III loop-leg jar in the Cyprus Museum, read by Loulloupis as a bird-catching scene, shows "birds" with a "distinctly swastika look", one of them drawn with a full body and shaped head [6].

The motif also appears alongside a wide array of other images, reflecting Cyprus’s role as a cultural filter. These include chevrons, sun motifs, dotted crosses, rosettes, and various floral and tree motifs [21, p. 344; 23, p. 143; 25, p. 5]. On one Bichrome IV "free field" jug, a swastika floats near a male figure sniffing a lotus flower, a scene with clear Near Eastern and Egyptian parallels [6]. It occurs on plain jugs and on large pictorial kraters alike. By the end of the Cypro-Archaic period the swastika's popularity waned. As taste shifted in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BCE, away from the Egyptianizing and Near Eastern styles of the Archaic period and toward the Greek-oriented art of the Cypro-Classical period, the swastika, along with much of the old geometric repertoire, dropped out of use [19; 6; 26, p. 9].

What Did It Mean?

Despite its frequency, the meaning of the swastika in ancient Cyprus remains an open question. The evidence allows several competing readings and settles none of them. Vassos Karageorghis, who published widely on Cypriot Iron Age pottery and iconography, told Merrillees that he knew nothing about its symbolism, and other specialists have passed over it in their surveys of Iron Age pottery designs [6]. This scholarly reticence highlights the difficulty of decoding ancient symbols without explicit textual explanations [27, p. 115].

One prominent theory suggests the swastika was a solar or celestial symbol. It is listed alongside the "sun motif" as a characteristic feature of Salaminian pictorial pottery [21, p. 344]. This interpretation finds support outside Cyprus; in Anatolia, limestone idols show swastikas in association with suns and crosses, possibly representing different celestial bodies [1, p. 21]. On a clay ball from Troy IV, a swastika is associated with both a sun and wavy lines interpreted as lightning [1, p. 18].

A second interpretation, with more support in Cyprus itself, is that the swastika represented a bird. The idea goes back to the French archaeologist Salomon Reinach, and the consistent pairing of the two motifs on Cypro-Archaic pottery supports it [6; 23, p. 144]. The schematic birds drawn in swastika-like form give a direct visual link between the two [6]. In a visual culture that often blended geometric and pictorial elements, a simple, easily repeatable sign for a common pictorial subject like a bird would have been a useful artistic convention.

A third line of inquiry treats the swastika as a marker of identity or status. Jacqueline Karageorghis, writing without specific reference to Cyprus, gave it the indeterminate meaning of "a member of the gens" (clan or people), which would point toward a role in expressing group affiliation [6]. The use of specific motifs can function as an emblem of identity, a visual way of signaling belonging to a particular community or tradition [28, p. 5]. In the broader Aegean and Anatolian world, the swastika often appears in elite contexts, such as on seals made of precious materials found in Cretan tholos tombs or in high-status buildings at Troy. This has led to the suggestion that it carried an "elite symbolism connected to the socio-political sphere" [1, p. 20]. While it is difficult to prove this for Cyprus, its prominent place in the highly valued pictorial pottery styles could indicate a similar association with status.

Finally, it is possible that the swastika’s meaning was fluid, or that in many cases it had no specific symbolic content at all. Its use as a small "filling ornament" in the spaces between larger designs suggests it could function as a purely decorative element, chosen for its geometric simplicity and its ability to fill a square space effectively [21, p. 344; 20]. The basic shape of the swastika, a square with extended arms, lends itself naturally to techniques like weaving, which may have contributed to its popularity as a fundamental geometric pattern [29, p. 66]. It is entirely possible that the swastika operated on multiple levels simultaneously: as a specific symbol in some contexts (a bird or a sun), a general good-luck charm in others (as suggested by its appearance on a Trojan idol associated with generative power [1, p. 18]), and as a simple decorative space-filler in many more.

Borrowing and Local Use

After a few disputed Early Bronze Age examples and rare Late Bronze Age ones, the swastika became a regular part of Cypriot vase painting from the start of the Iron Age and stayed in use for some five centuries. Its likely source lay to the east, in Anatolia or the Levant, and Gjerstad's observation that it was missing from the late Mycenaean pottery that shaped early Iron Age Cypriot wares points the same way [1, p. 20; 20]. Cypriot painters also adapted it to their own uses. The close pairing with birds appears to be a Cypriot preference [23, p. 144; 6], and borrowing foreign motifs and recasting them for local use runs through Cypriot art more widely [5; 30, p. 10].

Two questions remain open. The first is whether the incised Early Cypriot signs on Red Polished vases and spindle whorls from Vounous and Marki are swastikas at all, which decides whether the Iron Age motif revived an old local sign or arrived new. The second is whether the painted sign had one meaning (sun, bird or group emblem) or carried different senses on different pots, with many examples serving only to fill a square of empty space between larger designs [6; 21, p. 344].