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Menorah and Cross in Late Antiquity

by Lidia Chakovskaya

Some time ago, a magazine asked for my comments on a certain project launched by an international network of tattoo salons, the goal of which was to restore the swastika’s primordial solar meaning. Before submitting my analysis, I spent some time exploring the history of the symbol. I was struck by the deep iconic resonance of the swastika in a variety of different cultures, where it stood for well-being, light, and movement.

Lidia Chakovskaya

Lidia Chakovskaya, PhD, is a senior researcher at the State Institute of Art Studies, senior lecturer at Moscow State University, and Associate Professor at the Humanities Center of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute). She is the author of The Memory of the Temple Embodied: The Artistic Realm of the Holy Land Synagogues of the 3rd–6th Centuries (Moscow: Indrik, 2011).

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