ARCHAEOLOGY. 



27 



objects. Both tombs were less rich than might 

 have been anticipated judging from the care ex- 

 ercised in their construction. A third tomb built 

 between these two, of much less elaborate finish, 

 was extremely rich in funerary furniture, and 

 contained the skeleton of a woman holding a 

 bronze mirror in her left hand, and in her right 

 heavy cymbals of the same metal. The left wrist 

 was hidden under a bracelet of pearls, scarabei, 

 and little images. On the right arm were several 

 silver and ivory rings. The figures were loaded 

 with silver rings and a gold ring with four cyno- 

 cephali engraved on the bezel. The left ear bore 

 a golden pendant, with a tau cross. On the neck 

 was a large necklace of massive gold, made of 

 forty differently shaped parts, symmetrically dis- 

 posed on either side of a central piece represent- 

 ing a turquoise crescent, resting upon a disk of 

 jacinth. Besides these were another silver neck- 

 lace, an aryballus, a figured Corinthian alabaster, 

 a large enameled flask covered with gold leaf, a 



HEAD OF THE STATUE OF CERES. 



statue of polychrome faience in the Egyptian 

 style, disks of painted ostrich eggs, shells filled 

 with purple paint, vases, and a lamp. 



Cyclopean Ruins on the Muira River. Dr. 

 Karl Peters reports the discovery of cyclopean 

 ruins near the great Kraal Inja-ka-Fura, on the 

 Muira river, a southern tributary of the Zam- 

 besi. They are situated on a hill running paral- 

 lel with the western of the two mountains 

 through which the Muira cuts its way, and which 

 the author calls after his own name, Mount 

 Peters. The ruins consisted of ancient ground 



walls, an ancient cyclopean wall, partly fallen 

 to pieces, running " in a mighty circle " round 

 the slope of the hill to the right and left, and 

 forming with the hill what is designated as a 

 courtyard; and a ground wall worked into the 

 natural rock that formed a sort of flat floor, 

 and which had formed part of a building. The 

 stones of this ground wall were heart shaped 

 and worked with a pick. The whole of the ruin 

 was built after the general ancient Semitic pat- 

 tern. The ruin is ascribed to the old conquerors, 

 who chose here in the Fura massive a very com- 

 manding position for their fort. A second ruin 

 was found a few days later by Dr. Peters's com- 

 panion, Mr. Leonard Puzey, west northwest of 

 the first, on another head of the same ridge look- 

 ing over the plain in the same direction. 



Bronzes from Benin. In the course of the 

 punitive expedition by the British Government 

 to the city of Benin to avenge the massacre of 

 British subjects a number of remarkable bronze 

 panels were discovered. Having been sent home 

 to England by Sir Ralph Moore, the majority 

 of them have been presented by Lord Salisbury 

 to the British Museum. The designs upon the 

 plaques are apparently of native origin, but tes- 

 tify to contact with Europeans. A number of 

 figures of Europeans are represented, and in such 

 situations as imply friendly relations with the 

 negroes, whether in sport or on occasions of cere 

 mony. The native traditions as to the origin 

 of these works as collected by Sir Ralph Moore 

 and Mr. Roupell are to the effect that when the 

 white men came a man came with them who 

 made brass work and plaques for the king, stayed 

 a very long time, had many wives but no chil- 

 dren, and was given plenty of boys to teach. 

 The panels are supposed to have been made about 

 the middle of the sixteenth century. Other metal 

 objects in the round are included in the collec- 

 tion. Among them are two human heads, over 

 each eyebrow of which are four vertical cica- 

 trices, and two bands between, which, with the 

 pupils of the eyes, have been inlaid with iron. 

 A number of carved tusks and other objects of 

 ivory exhibit superior workmanship, but are as- 

 sociated with Portuguese emblems. 



Japan. Dolmens in Japan. A careful ex- 

 amination of the rude stone monuments of Japan 

 and of the sepulchral chambers termed dolmens 

 has led Mr. W. GowTand to conclude (Transac- 

 tions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, Vol. 

 IV, Part HI, 1899) that they were built by the 

 ancestors of the present Japanese. The aborigi- 

 nal inhabitants were apparently the Ainos, who 

 occupied the whole country until they were 

 driven back to the north by a more powerful 

 race. Whence came the invaders from whom the 

 present Japanese have descended is not known, 

 and the dolmens afford little information on this 

 question. No dolmens have been found in China, 

 and those which s occur in Korea differ entirely 

 from those in Japan. In fact, Mr. Gowland 

 points out, it is not until, in passing westward 

 through Asia, the shores of the Caspian Sea are 

 reached that dolmens similar to the Japanese 

 kind are found, and for more closely allied forms 

 the search must be extended to western Eu- 

 rope. The approximate date of the end of the 

 dolmen period is regarded as lying between 600 

 and 700 A. D., and of its beginning about the 

 second century B. c. Mr. Gowland shows that 

 " the period during which the dolmens were built 

 in Japan was characterized, from its beginning to 

 its close, by a well-developed civilization and a 

 culture which had advanced far beyond the limits 

 of barbarism, and was, in fact, the birthtime of 



