546 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
Kiushiu. Here we find the second large dolmen region, including 
the island of Tsushima and the provinces lying opposite the southern 
point of Korea, a region where bronze weapons are especially fre- 
quent. This region was afterwards for a thousand years the seat of 
powerful vassals, who were often enough arrayed against the imperial 
court. From here, according to the Japanese annals, the first Emperor 
continued his journey across the bay of Shimonoseki to the main 
island and marched along the shores of the inland sea. On this road 
we encounter a third dolmen center in the province of Bizen. The 
conquest at last reached its goal in the central provinces, the Gokinai, 
which were from then the seat of the imperial rule for more than two . 
thousand years. It is no wonder then that we find here the fourth 
and largest of the dolmen centers. 
The fifth lies along the northwest coast of the principal island in 
and around the province of Idzumo, where, as mentioned above, the 
conquerors already found a civilized people. The sixth is that in 
and around the Tokyo plain. 
Thus the legendary stories of ancient Japanese history are cor- 
roborated by the archeological finds. From these we learn that the 
invaders, a people in the iron-age culture, took possession of the 
fertile coast stretches in the southwest and spread out to the east and 
north along the ocean. In Yamato and Idzumo they encountered 
organized communities of a cultivated and propably related race; 
these they subdued only after a fierce struggle. The regions where we 
find the Dolmen centers were ruled by feudal princes who for a long 
time recognized the Emperor only as primus inter pares, since they 
were buried in a similar manner as the Emperor himself. Their 
power was gradually absorbed by the emperors in Yamato, and at 
last these were able to proclaim themselves “ sole rulers by the grace 
of the gods.” 
The period of the imperial mounds as well as of the common 
dolmen mounds which are found in groups of 10 to 200 at the foot 
or on the slope of hills, probably began at least in the fourth century 
B. C., perhaps a good deal earlier. Its end is fixed about the year 
700 A. D., since at that time an imperial edict was issued forbidding 
this form of burial. Cremation was then inaugurated under the 
influence of Buddhism. 
It is noticeable in connection with the Japanese dolmens that (1) 
they are found in neither the stone nor the bronze age, but belong ex- 
clusively to the iron age; that (2) they are always of a megalithic 
nature, simple stone vaults or so-called cists not having been found 
so far in Japan, although they are numerous in Korea; and that 
(3) the country where they are found is entirely isolated from all 
regions with similar structures. It is necessary to go as far as the 
Caspian Sea or to the northern part of India to find anything like 
