The X as an ancient sign

SUMMARYThe X as an ancient sign (Nov 4, 2026). Tito: "The X is our ancient sign: the Confederate flag, all the artifacts we argue about."
RECORD, the flag: the Confederate battle flag's diagonal cross was designed by William Porcher Miles (1861), who said he chose the saltire, the St. Andrew's cross of Scotland, over an upright cross so it would not read as a religious emblem.
RECORD, the sign in the Americas: the cross-in-circle is a central Mississippian motif (shell gorgets, Cahokia-era). Ayiti's vèvè for Papa Legba, keeper of the crossroads, is built on a cross. In the Kongo cosmogram (dikenga) a cross marks the crossing between worlds. In Greek the letter X is chi, the first letter of Christ (Χριστός), hence "Xmas." The Michigan tablet (P226) carries an X beside the feathered figure.
RECORD, the Hebrew tav (Tito: "It's the Hebrew tow"): tav (ת) is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and in paleo-Hebrew script it was written as an X or a + mark. The word tav also means "mark" or "sign." Ezekiel 9:4: "set a mark (tav) upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry," the mark that spared them; in the old script that mark was an X. Tav became the Greek tau and the Latin T, and early Christian writers read Ezekiel's tav as the cross

PATTERNthe crossing sign shows up on both sides of the Atlantic, in ancestral art and in empire's flags and churches

LENS (WW9)X is the ancestors' sign, the crossroads, worn by those who came later

OPENthe oldest dated X and saltire marks in the Americas, and when the saltire first appears in Scotland. Needs deep research.