XX.— The Dolmens and Burial Mounds in Japan

The Papers which I have the honour of laying before the Society contain a summary of my explorations and investigations of the dolmens of Japan during a long residence in that country. We have but little exact knowledge of the mode in which the Japanese disposed of the bodies of their famous dead in the very earliest times. The somewhat vague statements of their ancient traditional records would seem to point to burial or mere deposition on the summits of natural hills as their earliest practice, but the most ancient remains yet discovered have not been found in such localities, but on the lower grounds bordering the plains, and on the plains themselves

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