DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.959#0099
INTRODUCTION.
39
ten similar round articles of terra-cotta in the form of the
top or volcano, which are preserved in the Museum of
Modena, and were found in the terramares of that district,
in the lake-habitations of the stone age. To my extreme
astonishment, I found that six of them possessed the same
ornamental carvings which I found upon the articles of the
same form here in Troy. Three of them have a circle
round the central sun, a triple cross, which, as I have
endeavoured minutely to explain in my sixth memoir,
was the symbol of the two pieces of wood of our.Aryan
forefathers for producing the holy fire, and is an emblem
of the highest importance. The fourth represents one of
these machines for producing fire with five ends, and
Indian scholars may possibly find that one of the staves
represents the piece of wood called "pramantha," with
which fire was generated by friction, and which the Greeks
at a later time transformed into their Prometheus, who,
as they imagined, stole fire from heaven. The fifth re-
presents a somewhat different form of the fire producer
of our remote ancestors; and the sixth has twelve circles
round the central sun. Probably these are the twelve
stations of the sun which are so frequently mentioned
in. the Rigveda, and which are personified by the twelve
Adityas, the sons of Adity (the Indivisible or Infinite
Space), and represent the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
The same friend has also sent me drawings of eighteen
similar round terra-cottas found in the graves of the
cemetery in Villanova, and now in the Museum of Count
Gozzadini in Bologna. As the count found an " aes
rude" in one of the graves, he thinks that the cemetery,
"ke it, belongs to the time of King Numa, that is, to
about 700 years before Christ. G. de Mortillet,* however,
ascribes a much greater age to the cemetery. But, at
all events, fifteen of the eighteen drawings lying before
' Le Signe de la Croix,' pp. 88-89.
39
ten similar round articles of terra-cotta in the form of the
top or volcano, which are preserved in the Museum of
Modena, and were found in the terramares of that district,
in the lake-habitations of the stone age. To my extreme
astonishment, I found that six of them possessed the same
ornamental carvings which I found upon the articles of the
same form here in Troy. Three of them have a circle
round the central sun, a triple cross, which, as I have
endeavoured minutely to explain in my sixth memoir,
was the symbol of the two pieces of wood of our.Aryan
forefathers for producing the holy fire, and is an emblem
of the highest importance. The fourth represents one of
these machines for producing fire with five ends, and
Indian scholars may possibly find that one of the staves
represents the piece of wood called "pramantha," with
which fire was generated by friction, and which the Greeks
at a later time transformed into their Prometheus, who,
as they imagined, stole fire from heaven. The fifth re-
presents a somewhat different form of the fire producer
of our remote ancestors; and the sixth has twelve circles
round the central sun. Probably these are the twelve
stations of the sun which are so frequently mentioned
in. the Rigveda, and which are personified by the twelve
Adityas, the sons of Adity (the Indivisible or Infinite
Space), and represent the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
The same friend has also sent me drawings of eighteen
similar round terra-cottas found in the graves of the
cemetery in Villanova, and now in the Museum of Count
Gozzadini in Bologna. As the count found an " aes
rude" in one of the graves, he thinks that the cemetery,
"ke it, belongs to the time of King Numa, that is, to
about 700 years before Christ. G. de Mortillet,* however,
ascribes a much greater age to the cemetery. But, at
all events, fifteen of the eighteen drawings lying before
' Le Signe de la Croix,' pp. 88-89.