VIII.] THE NORTHERN MONGOLS. 2/1 



which, however, appear to be of recent date (mostly Buddhist 

 prayers and formularies), and are not to be confounded with the 

 much older rock inscriptions deciphered by W. Thomsen through 

 the Turki language. 



Continuing his investigations in Mongolia proper, Herr Leder 

 here also discovered earthen kurgans, which, however, differed 

 from those of Siberia by being for the most part surmounted 

 either with circular or rectangular stone structures, or else with 

 monoliths. They are called Kilriiktsur by the present inhabitants, 

 who hold them in great awe, and never venture to touch them. 

 Unfortunately strangers also are unable to examine their contents, 

 all disturbance of the ground with spade or shovel being forbidden 

 under pain of death by the Chinese officials, for fear of awakening 

 the evil spirits, now slumbering peacefully below the surface. But 

 so far as may be inferred from the absence of bronze in the 

 Siberian mounds, all these ancient burial places would appear to 

 belong to the New Stone and Copper Periods. This alone would 

 imply an antiquity of several thousand years, because bronze, 

 usually assumed to be of Asiatic origin, is now supposed to have 

 reached Europe not later than about 3000 B.C., possibly much 

 earlier. 



Such an antiquity is indeed required to explain the spread 

 of neolithic remains to the Pacific seaboard, and 



Early Man in 



especially to Korea and Japan. In Korea Mr W. Korea and 

 Gowland examined a dolmen 30 miles from Seul, 

 which he describes and figures 1 , and which is remarkable 

 especially for the disproportionate size of the capstone, a 

 huge undressed megalith 14^ by over 13 feet. He refers to four 

 or five others, all in the northern part of the peninsula, and 

 regards them as "intermediate in form between a cist and a 

 dolmen." But he thinks it probable that they were never covered 

 by mounds, but always stood as monuments above ground, in this 

 respect differing from the Japanese, "which without exception are 

 all buried in tumuli." In some of their features these present 

 a curious resemblance to the Brittany structures, having either 

 "a distinct chamber which is approached by a gallery of greater 



1 Jour. Anthrop. Inst. 1895, p. 318 sq. 



