Pre-Christian " (
Urnfield culture, 2nd millennium BC). Due to the simplicity of the design (two intersecting lines), cross-shaped incisions make their appearance from deep prehistory; as
petroglyphs in European
cult caves, dating back to the beginning of the
Upper Paleolithic, and throughout prehistory to the
Iron Age. Also of prehistoric age are numerous variants of the simple cross mark, including the
crux gammata with curving or angular lines, and the Egyptian
crux ansata with a loop. Speculation has associated the cross symbol – even in the prehistoric period – with astronomical or cosmological
symbology involving "
four elements" (Chevalier, 1997) or the
cardinal points, or the unity of a vertical
axis mundi or celestial pole with the horizontal
world (Koch, 1955). Speculation of this kind became especially popular in the mid- to late-19th century in the context of
comparative mythology seeking to tie
Christian mythology to ancient
cosmological myths. Influential works in this vein included G. de Mortillet (1866), L. Müller (1865), W. W. Blake (1888), Ansault (1891), etc. character LAK-617 (𒔁): a cruciform arrangement of five boxes; scribes could use the central, larger box as container for other characters. In the
European Bronze Age the cross symbol appeared to carry a
religious meaning, perhaps as a symbol of consecration, especially pertaining to burial. The cross sign occurs trivially in
tally marks, and develops into a
number symbol independently in the
Roman numerals (X "ten"), the Chinese
rod numerals (
十 "ten") and the
Brahmi numerals ("four", whence the numeral
4). In the
Phoenician alphabet and
derived scripts, the cross symbol represented the phoneme /t/, i.e. the letter
taw, which is the historical predecessor of Latin
T. The letter name
taw means "mark", presumably continuing the
Egyptian hieroglyph "two crossed sticks" (
Gardiner Z9).
Post-Christian on a
solidus minted by
Leontios (r. 695–698); on the obverse, a stepped cross in the shape of an
Iota Eta monogram. The shape of the cross (
crux,
stauros "stake,
gibbet"), as represented by the Latin letter
T, came to be used as a new symbol (seal) or emblem of
Christianity since the
2nd century AD to succeeding
Ichthys in aftermaths of that new religion's
separation from Judaism.
Clement of Alexandria in the early 3rd century calls it ("the Lord's sign") he repeats the idea, current as early as the
Epistle of Barnabas, that the number 318 (in
Greek numerals, ΤΙΗ) in Genesis 14:14 was a foreshadowing (a "type") of the cross (the letter Tau) and of Jesus (the letters
Iota Eta). Clement's contemporary
Tertullian rejects the accusation that Christians are
crucis religiosi (i.e. "adorers of the gibbet"), and returns the accusation by likening the worship of pagan idols to the worship of poles or stakes. In his book
De Corona, written in 204, Tertullian tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the
sign of the cross. While early Christians used the T-shape to represent the cross in writing and gesture, the use of the
Greek cross and
Latin cross, i.e. crosses with intersecting beams, appears in Christian art towards the end of
Late Antiquity. An early example of the
cruciform halo, used to identify Christ in paintings, is found in the
Miracles of the Loaves and Fishes mosaic of
Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (6th century). The
Patriarchal cross, a Latin cross with an additional horizontal bar, first appears in the 10th century. A wide variation of cross symbols is introduced for the purposes of
heraldry beginning in the age of the
Crusades. == Marks and graphemes ==