Oddly enough James Fazer brought about a lot of such speculation in the early 1900s after publishing The Golden Bough. McAllister, in "Tara: A Pagan Sanctuary in Ireland" (pub 1920s) postulated that some of the engraved bone 'plaques' were actually bull-roarers and that some might be ceremonial boomerangs.

Like most theories, even those arrived at independently, this one is not new.

Oh my god - I've heard it all now! If the Swastika Stone's a boomerang, I've gorra ten-incher! No way. Undoubtedly the doods been watching too much Skippy!

But - just in case the dood's right: I wonder what he makes of the extended "arm" on the Swastika's northeastern side. Perhaps some sorta hook which y' catch it with when it returns???

>I concur that the swastika design on the stone *could* be a weapon, but isn't it also the
>case that swirls and spirals and stuff are common themes throughout rock art?

Yeah, although the design of the Swastika Stone is a little at odds with the other rock art on Ilkley Moor, being mostly based on unsymetrical cups and grooves. The design has more in common with the Camunian Rose in the Valcamonican rock art of nothern Italy. Leading many people to believe that the Swastika Stone dates from a later period than the rest of the rock art in the area.

It has been suggested that it could be an Iron Age carving (Brigantians being linked to Brigit, who was sometimes represented by a swastika style motif) or possibly Romano-British, the fort Roman of Olicana in Ilkley being largely garrisoned by Gaulish Celt recruits.

I dont normaly hang around here but i was interested to follow up the article about the Swastika Stone representing a boomerang. It certainly defies all logic and credibility. As it happens, I live in Brisbane Australia and there is an almost exact replica carved in a rock in a forest near here. Whilst i have no doubt that it has nothing to do with boomerangs it would be interesting to see if this carving pre dates the Yorkshire one.

Anyone cares to follow up on this email me here [email protected]

my 2 cents

After a bit of doodling, to see how someone might have gone about producing the swastika carving it seems to me they most likely first produced a cross consisting of 9 cup marks, then drew a line, for whatever reason, first to the left and then to the right of each cup mark in succession, arriving at the shape as a result of the rules they were following, rather than deliberately trying to make a representation of anything.

The alternative - to draw a boomerang or throwing stick or whatever - and then add cupmarks both inside it and outside seems a bit odd.

David Bird has kindly sent me his pics of the Aussie Swastika Stone near Brisbane, with permission to upload them. I've laso traced of a diagram of the parts of the design I can clearly see.

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/95

I've uploaded them to the Ilkley Moor Swastika Stone page... if the TMA Eds think this is the wrong place and would like me to put them somewhere else, or take them down altogether, please let me know n' I'll oblige.

My initial thoughts are that it may have been carved by colonial settlers... but it may well be aboriginal of course too.... it certainly looks too weathered to be 20th C at least. The design closely follows that of the Valcamonican Camunian Rose, nine cups in a cross and an entwining groove.

To suggest that just because a motif is found in both Australia and Ilkley that it represents a boomerang sounds a bit lame to me as it ignores that fact that symbol occurs in many other places around the world and has been interpretted as a solar symbol for many different cultures.
In modern times and before the nazis took possession of the symbol it was used to signify good luck and was used as we would now use a four leaf clover.