History of flags

A flag is a distinctive piece of fabric used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. While the origin of flags is unknown, flag-like symbols have been described as far back as 11th-century BC China and have been used by other ancient civilisations such as Egypt and Rome. During the Medieval period, silk from China allowed a variety of peoples, such as the Arabs and the Norse, to develop flags which flew from poles. Developments in heraldry led to the creation of personal heraldic banners for rulers and other important people in the European kingdoms. Flags began to be regularly used on board ships for identification and communication in the Age of Sail. In the 18th century and onwards, a rising tide of nationalism around the world meant that common people began to regularly identify themselves with nation-states and their symbols, including flags. In the modern day, every national entity and many sub-national entities employ flags for identification.

Etymology While the exact etymological origin is unknown, the word 'flag' first appears in English in the late 15th century. Possible origins include a variation of Middle English flakken, "to flap, flutter" which may further originate from Old Norse flaka, "to flicker, flutter, hang loose." These may be derived from Proto-Germanic flago- and the Proto-Indo-European root plak- ("to be flat"). The word first seems to have come into widespread use in the 16th century and soon came to encompass a variety of items, including banners, ensigns, gonfalons and others.

Proto-flags

The origin of flags is unknown. Some of the earliest known banners come from ancient China to identify different parts of the army. For example, it is recorded that the armies of the Zhou dynasty in the 11th century BC carried a white banner before them, although no extant depictions exist of these banners. An early representation of such Chinese flags is a low-relief sculpture on the tomb of Emperor Wu of Han that shows two horseman bearing banners attached to poles and staffs.

Early representations of standards can be found on Egyptian bas-reliefs such as the Narmer Palette, which is said to be the earliest representation. These vexilloids, or flag-like standards, were symbols of the nomes of pre-dynastic Egypt. In fact, ancient Greek writers attributed the creation of standards to the Egyptians. According to Diodorus, Egyptian standards generally consisted of figures of sacred animals on the end of a staff or spear. Another often used symbol was a figure resembling an expanded semi-circular fan.

Roman standards

While China, Greece, and Persia are all known to have used cloth banners to designate parts of their armies, in ancient times, it was the Romans who made the most widespread use of flag like symbols to represent their army. These banners, also known as a vexillum, were used to represent each army unit starting around 100 BC. The vexillum was composed of a piece of cloth fastened to a cross bar at the top of a spear, sometimes with fringe around the outside. The only extant Roman vexillum is dated to the first half of the 3rd century AD and is housed in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. It is an almost square piece of coarse linen cloth with the image of the goddess Victoria. Roman emperors used a banner similar in form called a labarum. It frequently bore upon it a representation of the emperor, sometimes by himself and sometimes accompanied by the heads of members of his family. It became associated with Constantine the Great and later Christianity after he supposedly marched under a labarum bearing the Chi Rho. These Roman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples of the metropolis and chief cities of the empire. Another Roman standard that was widespread by the time of the 4th century author Vegetius was the draco or dragon, a symbol originally borrowed from the Parthians some time after the death of Trajan. It would take the form of a dragon affixed to a lance with silver jaws and a body of colourful silk. When the wind blew down its open jaws the body would become inflated, similar to a windsock. It would sometimes contain a device to produce a shrill whistle sound, and was used to intimidate enemy troops.

Medieval period

With the innovation of silk in China and subsequent propagation along the Silk Road, flags as we know them today began to develop. Flags that comprise cloth attached to an upright pole at one side seem to have first been regularly used by the Saracens who introduced it to the Western world, although they would not gain popularity in the latter until the 9th-century. Flags are often mentioned in the early history of Islam and may have been copied from India. Tradition holds that a black flag was flown by Muhammad during the Conquest of Mecca, in the 7th century, and that his followers flew green flags. There is evidence of such standards being used by the grandsons of Muhammad during the Rashidun Caliphate onward which were generally triangular and flown from a vertical flag pole. Subsequent Islamic dynasties used a variety of different coloured banners to identify themselves and were often drawn from flags supposedly flown by the prophet during his life. Another 9th-century vertical flying flag is the raven banner that was used widely by the Vikings. Although no complete illustration of this banner exists, it probably appears on Northumbrian coins from the start of the century and later, in the 11th century, is most likely seen on the Bayeux Tapestry.

Heraldic flags

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