and spiral design; then they disappeared almost entirely. They coexisted no longer, as a rule, with the well-established decorative pattern of geometrical design, except in the stone age pottery of Riu-kiu.

It may be true that certain elements of the geometrical decorative pattern were imported into Japan from the continent; but I cannot agree by any means with those authors who declare that the whole geometrical decorative pattern was so derived. In my opinion, the change of the decorative pattern of the stone age pottery of Japan from curve and spiral design to geometrical design was chiefly an evolution but not a revolution. Consequently, we are obliged to look upon the artifacts of the stone age of Japan

FIG. 15.-Type of pottery of the middle mediaeval stone age.

as those made by the genuine ancestors of a greater part of us modern Japanese. This view will be confirmed again by a study of the racial types of both the stone age and the modern Japanese.

Looking over all these changes of the stone age pottery, it may safely be said that they were chiefly degenerative in the limitation of the decorative pattern. It appears that the stone age pottery changed or evolved according to the law of the economy of labor and time. Again, the succession of the various orders of decorative pattern corresponds well to Dollo's law as is well known in our palaeontology.

In accordance with these facts and considerations, I subdivide the stone age of Japan chronologically as follows:

1. Earlier stone age, or period of bas-relief pattern of curve and spiral design.

Pottery large and very thick; mat impression, very common, coarse, and rough; bas-relief, decorative pattern of curve and

FIG. 16.-Human figure of the middle mediaeval stone age.

spiral design very common; handles, very large and elaborate (figs. II and 12).

(1) Lower earlier stone age:-bas-relief pattern of the first order very well developed.

(2) Upper earlier stone age:-bas-relief pattern of the first order usually limited to the upper part of the vessel (figs. 13 and 14). 2. Mediaeval stone age, or period of incised pattern of curve and spiral design.

Pottery, moderately thick to thin; mat impression, very common, coarse, and rough to fine and nice; bas-relief patterns very few; incised decorative patterns of curve and spiral design, common; handles, large to very small.

FIG. 17.-Type of pottery of the upper mediaeva! stone age.

(1) Lower mediaeval stone age:-pottery, moderately thick; mat impression, coarse and rough; incised patterns of curve and spiral design, very common, very well-developed; handles, large and elaborate.

(2) Middle mediaeval stone age:-pottery, thin; mat impression, fine and nice; incised pattern of curved and spiral design, very common, very often limited to the upper part of the vessel; handles, small and simple (figs. 15 and 16).

(3) Upper mediaeval stone age:-pottery, thin; mat impression, fine and very nice; free mat impression decoration, very welldeveloped, very often assuming a repetition of pinnate arrangement; incised decorative pattern of curve and spiral design, persisting but rather less common, mostly limited to the upper part of the vessels; handles, small and simple, or entirely absent (fig. 17).

3. Later stone age, or period of incised patterns of geometrical design. Pottery, thin; mat impression, less common to entirely absent, besides incised false mat impression; bas-relief decorative patterns, very few; decorative patterns of curve and spiral design, entirely absent; that of geometrical design, common; handles, almost entirely absent, those of the secondary order, different from that of the handles of the preceding ages, might sometimes be present.

(1) Lower later stone age:-mat impression decoration, persisting, usually limited to the upper part of the vessels; incised false mat impression, present.

(2) Upper later stone age:-mat impression decoration, entirely

FIG. 18.--Type of pottery of the Hanibe-Iwaibe period.

absent; incised false mat impression, rather common. The later stone age was followed by the Hanibe-Iwaibe period which belongs to the metal age.

4. Hanibe-Iwaibe period, or earlier metal age. Coexistence of the Hanibe pottery, which is very similar to the pottery of the upper later stone age, and the Iwaibe pottery, which is a grayish or dark bluish hard pottery and resembles very much that of the ancient Koreans (figs. 18 and 19).

This period corresponds to the protohistorical and earlier historical ages of Japan. The chronological succession was very gradual in western Japan, while it was interrupted by the absence of the later stone age culture in northeastern Japan where the mediaeval

FIG. 19.-Type of pottery of the Hanibe-Iwaibe period.

stone age culture was followed immediately by the Hanibe-Iwaibe culture. That is, the changes of the culture were an evolution throughout in western Japan, but partly an evolution and partly a revolution in northeastern Japan.

IV. BURIAL CUSTOMS OF THE STONE AGE PEOPLE

The stone age burials of Japan were almost always contracted, as clearly observed by Mr. Uchida, in the site of Tsukumo; by Prof. Suzuki, in the site of Higashi-ataka; by Prof. Hamada and Mr. Torii, in the site of Kô; by Prof. Ôgushi, in the sites of Kô and Tsukumo; by Prof. Kiyono, in the site of Tsukumo; by myself, in the sites of Miyato island, Aoshima, and Kô; by Prof. Koganei and Mr. Shibata, in the site of Kô; by Prof. Hasebe, in the sites of Kô and Tsukumo; and so on; but very rerely extended, as observed by Prof. Kiyono and Ôgushi in the site of Tsukumo.

The bodies, skeletons when we discover them, were laid in tombs either with the back directly down or slightly to one side. The burials on the back appear to be more common in the sites of western Japan, as Tsukumo, Kô, and Higashi-ataka, and in the earlier stone age sites of northeastern Japan, as Aoshima and