542 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
there are gold-plated rings of iron or copper made without soldering, 
of the same form and technique as those in the more elaborate graves 
of the bronze and iron age in Europe. Some small rings of solid 
gold or silver have also been found. Among the other ornaments 
may be mentioned little thin plates of gold and silver used as trim- 
mings for clothes, glass and stone beads, and bugles. Gowland found 
no less than 1,018 specimens of these last ornaments in one dolmen 
grave, together with the comma-shaped magatama already mentioned. 
The last are not so numerous, however. Steatite, jasper, agate, 
rock crystal, and occasionally the foreign stones, chrysopras and 
nephrite, are used for this jewelry. The prevailing colors of the 
jewelry are blue for the beads and a dull green for the stones. In 
many graves are found small models in steatite of wooden shoes, 
combs, spindles, knives, daggers, arrow points, and 
some radially striped disk-shaped objects, whose sig- 
nificance is not known. They are, from their shape, 
called wagon-wheel stones by Japanese archeologists. 
The pottery of the dolmens has been described in 
detail by Dénitz, and the principal forms are figured 
in his paper already quoted. He rejects the idea 
prevalent amongst the Japanese experts, of Korean 
origin or influence in regard to this pottery, as in his 
opinion the ancient Koreans themselves were un- 
skilled potters, and as the Korean pottery used at 
the ceremonial Japanese tea ceremonies (cha no yu) 
was shaped by hand and was of a rough type, while 
BUY Aleta: eam, I the gray dolmen ware, although mostly unglazed, 
with perforatea WaS always made on the wheel and is of a much 
SUSE: higher artistic standing. The cha no yu ware, how- 
ever, is of a much later date and only part of it comes from Korea, 
while the clay vessels found in the old Korean graves are unmistak- 
ably identical with the Japanese dolmen pottery. 
In any case the fact remains that even before Christ artistic and 
well-formed vessels existed, which were shaped upon the wheel, and 
yet centuries later potters were brought over from Korea. In Japan 
itself the best potters must have lived, not in the imperial province 
of Yamato, but in the distant province of Idzumo, the seat of the most 
ancient culture, whither the Government sent again and again for 
potters when they were needed quickly. 
In connection with the pretty conical stands or bases of some of 
the vases with triangular and rectangular holes, I may remark that 
I have seen in the museum at Cairo very ancient Egyptian clay vases 
with the same striking ornamentation.- Donitz thinks that the holes 
were put in to facilitate the baking. Gowland considers them entirely 
