Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/23

 their wares. It is possible to make these statements with confidence, because the dolmens yield an abundance of pottery, some of which was doubtless used at burial services, and some in subsequent ceremonies. The surface decoration, even in the best examples, is rude, being confined to elementary diapers of straight lines or curves "scratched in the clay when soft with a single-pointed tool, or with combs having a varying number of teeth." (Gowland.) Often the surface of larger vessels shows an impressed pattern, evidently produced by contact with straw matting, and on the interior are found concentric circles overlapping, without any apparent attempt at orderly arrangement. Japanese archeologists regard these circles as an ornamental diaper introduced from Korea, and consequently give to them the name Chosen-guruma (Korean wheel-pattern), or Chosen-nami (Korean wave-pattern); but it has not been proved that any such decoration was applied by the Koreans in ancient times. A more credible explanation is that the marking was the result of a manufacturing process. While slowly turning the wheel, the potter pressed against the inside of the vessel a wooden stamp, having concentric circles cut on its head, and at the same time beat the outside with a wooden paddle wrapped in straw matting. Thus the circular marking on the interior, and the pattern of meshes and lines on the exterior, were the outcome of a process for annealing the clay.

The student naturally turns to the shapes of this pottery, hoping to discover from them indications of affinity between the dolmen-builders and some historically known race of Europe or Asia. There is, indeed, something to reward such a scrutiny. In the