536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
Tombs containing iron have never been found in this Aino terri- 
tory, and stone weapons never occur in the graves containing metal. 
The real question is whether the bronze-using people are identical 
in race with the iron people. Even if they are, we must assume that 
there were two distinct surges of immigration separated by a con- 
siderable period of time, the first consisting of people in the bronze 
age and the second of people in the iron age. The latter immigrants 
became the masters of the land, and the dolmen graves belonging 
to them were built even into the historical period. Their sway rep- 
resents the dawn of twilight of history. There is no doubt but that 
the iron-age people were the direct forebears of the present Japanese. 
The difference of the bronze and iron age 
folk appears further probable from the fact 
that in the oldest Japanese annals (712 and 
720 A. D.) the word bronze is altogether ab- 
sent, unless possibly the word for copper in- 
cludes bronze. In any case the annals 
consider iron as the only metal used in swords 
from the very beginning. Even the sun god- 
dess has an iron sword. The bronze swords 
discovered must therefore come from another 
people or tribe, though the race in both cases 
may have been the same. 
(? i oy That both the bronze and iron people 
Y! | brought their culture from the continent is 
a shown not only by the geographical position 
of the country and the indications of ancient 
legends, but also by the nature of the grave 
Fic. 5.—Japanese bronze deposits. 
WROTE MOIR SD Maka SO The bronze age can be disposed of in a few 
land). Above swords or E : : 
lances, the larger 70em, Words, for comparatively little is known about 
mi Below, arrow jit,, Dhere are no distiiel eraves, of this 
i period, although bronze weapons and other 
implements often occur near the surface in fields or clearings of south- 
western Japan. Together with them are sometimes found unglazed 
hand-fashioned cups and bowls of red clay. The bronze swords and 
lances are double edged, and they are similar to those of the bronze age 
in Europe. They are often so large that they were perhaps intended 
for sacrificial purposes rather than for use against enemies. Both 
these weapons and the rather infrequent arrow points are well fin- 
ished. The latter are found in the iron-age tombs, whereas the swords 
of the bronze and iron ages are totally different. 
Celts, needles, and fibulee are not found in Japan. In plowing their 
fields, peasants occasionally unearth, besides little round bells, very 
peculiar large flat bells, made of thin bronze, as much as 80 cm. or 
