Information about Skull And Crossbones

A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two bones crossed together under the skull. Today, it is generally used as a warning of danger (usually in regard to poisonous substances).

The symbol, or some variation thereof, was also featured on the Jolly Roger, one of the many flag designs of European and American pirates; it is thought of as the stereotypical pirate flag, although it has historically been used for other purposes as well.

Traditionally, the crossbones behind the skull indicates poison, while the crossbones under the skull (the "Jolly Roger") indicates pirates or piracy.

History of the symbol

Actual skulls and bones were long used to mark the entrances to Spanish cemeteries (campo santo). The practice, dating back many centuries, led to the symbol eventually becoming associated with the concept of death. Some crucifixes feature a skull and crossbones beneath the corpus (the depiction of Jesus's body), in reference to a legend that the place of the crucifixion was also the burial place of Adam or, more likely, in reference to the New Testament statement (King James Version: Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, and John 19:17) that the place of his crucifixion was called "Golgotha" (tr. "the Place of a Skull").

Today, an example of a real skull and crossbones may be seen in the 1732 Nuestra Señora del Pilar church overlooking the famous Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains several altars rescued from other early Spanish churches in South America. One of these has twenty rectangular window boxes arrayed behind and above the altar, five wide by four tall. The size of these glass window boxes is such that the femurs of the priests interred thusly are a bit too long to lay flat and so must be leaned up in an "X" formation. The other bones fill in the spaces around the femurs with the skull sitting prominently on top of the bone pile centered above the "X".

In 1829, New York State required the labeling of all containers of poisonous substances. The skull and crossbones symbol appears to have been used for that purpose since the 1850s. Previously a variety of motifs had been used, including the Danish "+ + +" and drawings of skeletons.

In the 1870s poison manufacturers around the world began using bright cobalt bottles with a variety of raised bumps and designs (to enable easy recognition in the dark) to indicate poison, but by the 1880s the skull and cross bones had become ubiquitous, and the brightly coloured bottles lost their association.

Modern uses

Today, the skull and crossbones is still the only standard symbol for poison. It is, however, less common outside industrial usage than it once was. Apart from its negative marketing effect on environmentally conscious consumers, it may actually attract children due to its association with pirates, a popular toy and play theme. For this reason, in the United States there has been a proposal to replace the skull and crossbones by the "Mr. Yuk" symbol.

The skull and crossbones is also used by the British Army. The 17th Lancers adopted the skull and crossbones as its cap badge upon its creation in 1759, becoming known as the 'Death or Glory Boys'. The cap badge was later used by the 17th/21st Lancers and its present-day successor, the Queen's Royal Lancers who are still nicknamed the 'Death or Glory Boys'.

Indeed, variations on the symbol have been used by several military forces; In World War II, Nazi SS troops made use of it as an insignia (in particular, the 3rd SS Division, which was a part of the larger Waffen SS). United States Marine Corps reconnaissance battalions also use a skull and cross bones on their emblems.

In Unicode, the "skull and crossbones" symbol is U+2620 (☠). The HTML entity is ☠.

It is also used by the Skull and Bones Society, a secret society at Yale University, as well as the Kappa Sigma, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternities. Poole Pirates Speedway Team in the United Kingdom have the Skull and Crossbones as their team badge.

See also

• Hazard symbol
• Jolly Roger
• Mr. Yuk
• Sedlec Ossuary — a church made of skeletons that uses the Skull and crossbones symbol at some places
• Totenkopf — "Dead (person)'s Head" insignia of former German elite military units.
• Skull and Bones
• Danse Macabre

External links

• "Pirates" — an overview of Pirate Flags
• "Crossbones Fanlisting" Crossbones Fanlisting
• "Skull Symbol" article about the use of similar symbols around the globe

References

1. "Wal-Mart pulls T-shirts with Nazi skull logo", Associated Press, Nov 14, 2006.