Talk:Looped square

Oldest Saint John's Arms?

Is the symbol on 1000 years old wooden ski foun from Finland the oldest Saint John's Arms symbol known? By the way Finland was not yet fully Christianised that time so it was probably a pagan symbol. 193.65.112.51 14:36, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the symbol on the wooden ski in Finland is about 1000 years old. The description on the Finnish antiquities webpage says that it dated from the Viking era, which would imply pagan symbolism to me too. (If you view the image, you'll note that it was rotated 90 degrees from the cruciform version of the symbol. That isn't especially relevant though.) Although Finland was (presumably) not Christianized as of 1000 A.D., the name for the symbol isn't specified on the Finnish museum page. Your point is well taken! I would guess that the historical text book that was also cited in this article describes why the term Saint John's Arms symbol is associated with the wooden ski symbol. I cannot confirm that, as I don't read Finnish. --FeralOink (talk) 20:48, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

I understand this is an old comment, but the fact is that this symbol is very prominently featured on artifacts much older than the Finnish ski version, which is just the oldest in Finland, not the oldest overall. It is in fact featured several times on the Oseberg ship burial tapestry. The context of this seems to be a religious procession, which is definitely not Christian.62.198.135.174 (talk) 21:20, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Requested move to simply "⌘"

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was no consensus to move the page from Saint John's Arms to the symbol, per the discussion below, without bias against any new request based on evidence obtained from further research. Dekimasuよ! 02:15, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

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This is simply a Christianized name for the symbol, it has much more history and numerous other names. I think the choice of this name is very arbitrary and misleading. The German Wikipedia also simply uses the symbol. It is, after all, a character. :bloodofox: 04:22, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

That displays as an empty square glyph on my computer... AnonMoos 09:39, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Do you have any Unicode fonts installed? :bloodofox: 16:59, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I have little difficulty with displaying Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, or Arabic, and even have a special font "Lucida Sans Unicode", but this character doesn't seem to display. However, my operating system is not up to date... AnonMoos 22:36, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose use ⌘ as a redirect instead. It's impossible to type, isn't ASCII and isn't English. Perhaps you can choose a different name for the article, if you don't like the current title. 132.205.99.122 20:56, 19 October 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose This displays as a question mark on my computer -- please choose any of its "numerous other names". Ewlyahoocom 06:54, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose, we should not require our readers to have up-to-date OSs. Many won't. A description of the symbol, and an image at the top of the article, would be a service to WP. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 17:52, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
  • Done. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 17:54, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, in a perfect well we'd all have unicode fonts installed but I understand that we don't. So, maybe I can dig up a more appropriate or older name for the symbol. :} :bloodofox: 03:12, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Any proposed title should reflect the most common English usage, so I'm not sure an older one would be inherently more appropriate than the current name. What's the literal translation of the Finnish? Is that ever used in English? Dekimasuよ! 09:45, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Variant

Here's another variant... AnonMoos 19:49, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Why?

This article is rather lacking any discussion on where the name comes from, or what the symbol meant historically. --Starwed (talk) 20:27, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, and why does it pop up in the oddest places? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.49.35.99 (talk) 05:09, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

Five-fold variant

See File:Flag_of_Fukuoka_Prefecture.svg... -- AnonMoos (talk) 12:51, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Finnish ski image reference

I changed the URL for the wooden ski. I also created a separate reference, with citation template of type web for it, rather than bare linking to the image from within the article. If the URL that I used was less persistent or otherwise problematic, here is the original URL:

hxxp://suomenmuseotonline.fi/fi/kohde/Arkeologian+osasto/KM9908%3A1?pathId=1.184.183.866.&itemIndex=10307 photo

It is entirely functional, should it need to be replaced. --FeralOink (talk) 20:52, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Looped Square

This ought to be renamed to looped square. Redirect whatever to it, but the current name is bias as can be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TrystynAlxander (talk • contribs) 22:45, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

+1. The name "Saint John’s arms" is appropriate (if at all) only where culture with Christian affinity prevails. "Looped square" is neutral regarding culture and is the term used e.g. in the Tennessee Encyclopedia cited in the article for the Missisippi culture specimens. German uses the similar term "Schleifenquadrat" ("Schleifen"=loops, "Quadrat"=square). -- Karl432 (talk) 23:07, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Runestone U 1087

What's the relevance of Runestone U 1087, depicted in the gallery, to this article? 85.226.204.113 (talk) 10:46, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

I agree, it's not particularly relevant. There are plenty of other better examples in the article, so I removed it. Reify-tech (talk) 16:23, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Finlandia 5 pennia.JPG

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:59, 5 May 2021 (UTC)