Who invented flags

One of the oldest flags in the world, the Flag of Latvia was first mentioned in medieval chronicle called the Rhymed Chronicle of Livonia in The chronicle mentions a red standard with a white stripe being used by Latvian tribes. According to the LatvianHistory. A legend refers to a mortally wounded chief of a Latvian tribe who was wrapped in a white sheet. The part of the sheet on which he was lying remained white, but the two edges were stained in his blood.

During the next battle the bloodstained sheet was used as a flag. According to the legend this time the Latvian warriors were successful and drove the enemy away. Place a custom order for a wooden replica of the Flag of Latvia today! Known as the known as the 'Dannebrog' or 'Danish cloth,' in Denmark, the the current design of a white Scandinavian cross on a red background was officially adopted in or earlier.

The Flag of Denmark also holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest continuously used national flag. According to legend, the flag came into Danish possession during the Battle of Lyndanisse in The Danes were on a failing crusade in Estonia, but after praying to God, a flag fell from the sky. The first recorded use of the flag appeared less than years later. This legend has no historical or factual record, though many hold it to be true.

Reference — called2voyage. Do you have more recent sources for the axe connection? Recent literature seems to indicate the hieroglyph is a flag. I'd be interested to know what its earliest attestation is. Interesting insight! I did some more digging: the original temple "flags" that the hieroglyph was based on were actually vexilloid poles with ribbons at the top.

The imagery was on the pole, not the ribbon which was a thin strip or strips , and thus these are not usually considered to be flags. So this answer tries to put some historical input from ancient India to this question.

AskingStory AskingStory 1, 3 3 gold badges 13 13 silver badges 20 20 bronze badges. Your wikipedia source does not mention flags. Where are you getting this information?

According to Hindu calendar system the war might have happened before years. Also about wikipedia link, I just referred it to know about the war, and the main reason I put it because it have a picture of this chariot with this flag. So the actual reference is Mahabharatha itself. Before Kuruksethra war also, there could have been flags used in India, but since this flag have certain importance, it is mentioned in the writings.

MonsterTruck: Most of the dates for Vedas, Ramayana or Mahabharata were given by Westerners who have no knowledge about the Star positions mentioned in those manuscripts! For more information you can Google and find out the dates of Vedas or other. You can't really take it back any further than that though. Show 8 more comments. There are ancient Egyptian carvings and paintings of vexilloids thousands of years old. Two of the most common ways to display flags are: 1 Using clips to attach to lanyards cords or ropes to run them up and down flagpoles.

Since cloth doesn't age well, and flags are usually used until they are worn out, my suspicion is that flags are a lot older than we have record of. My guess is that the Shahdad Standard is a rare example of someone making a "flag" with a less perishable material than cloth, which is why it survived. Add a comment. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. How should we recognize our anniversary?

Linked 1. Related 8. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. This perceived connection between militarism and flags is historically founded. Building on this tradition, Roman legions carried lances with metal eagles mounted atop. Their influence on modern national flags can be seen in the design of many flagpoles, which also bear eagles or other symbols.

The more livestock-oriented Mongols flew horse and yak-tails as they swept down through Asia. The production of silk in China facilitated the transition from three-dimensional vexilloids to two-dimensional cloth banners.

West along the Silk Road, flags began to come into their own in the Muslim world. The prophet Mohammed flew both black and white banners, and later Islamic dynasties would identify themselves with these and other colors. As Barbara Karl explains in a article in the journal Textile History , the shift of flags from physical religious relics to political symbols was gradual:. The flag of the Prophet Mohammed was the most important flag held by the Ottomans. Higher ranking banners might even have silver or gold thread woven into them.

These banners were valued not only by the Ottomans, but by their enemies: silk Ottoman flags captured as trophies by the Habsburg army in the late 17th century are still held in Austrian museums. For their part, Europeans developed a complex system of heraldry during the Middle Ages.

Armor-clad knights, whose faces were obscured with metal, needed a way to display their identity on the battlefield—thus decorated banners, shields, and helmets. This visual system eventually took on a broader social role, as it indicated the class, rank, land, and hereditary titles held by nobility. Symbolic colors were certainly a part of heraldry, but the visual language was much more intricate. Representational art was not taboo in Europe as in the Muslim world, so heraldic crests, coats of arms, and flags often included detailed imagery in addition to symbols and mottos.

But in both Christian and Islamic communities, religious symbology influenced flag design. Many European flags, including the long-serving Danish Dannebrog, came to include some version of the cross. European ships also displayed heraldic banners and crosses.