In Yayoi pottery, there is a three-unit steamer set for cooking grains, yams and starched fruits. The scaly leaved branches of Juniperus chinensis L. (Sabina chinensis Ant.) were employed as the stopper or packing materials to the pore or pores in this set. This is synthetically concluded from several but different evidences, phytomorphological, ethnobotanical, ethymological and old literary, respectively.

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Body measurements were taken on a male patient, 25 years of age, suffering from acromegalic gigantism with pluriglandular adenomatosis, at Shinshu University. His clavicle, humerus and femur also were examined after his death. Somatometric and osteometric data are contained in the Japanese text. The patient was not only gigantic in size, but also abnomal in build, as pictures show. The vertebral column was kypho-scoliotic. The chest, back, face and lower limbs were developed asymmetrically. It is considered that those transformations of body build were caused by the overweight, the osteoporosis and the disharmony of epiphyseal closure of the long bones. The stature was 194 cm. in standing, although it was 215 cm. in laying. The notable difference of stature in different postures means that his skeleton could not bear the lasting load of his overweight in standing. The weight was 108 kg, even after his death, a larger portion of which being that of the fat tissue. Comparing the degree of development of the three bones examined, the femur is the most developed and the clavicle the least, although all the bones of the patient are larger than the normal. The order of size and robustness of the three bones examined corresponds with that of epiphyseal closure. Both clavicle and humerus show considerablly abnormal curvature. This fact may be due to the tectonic defect at the shoulder region.

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[in Japanese]

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This is a report concerning the determination of the original firing temperature of the Japanese prehistoric pottery, so called Jomon-Doki. In 1935, KONDO, KAWASHIMA and TANAHASHI measured the amount of alumina extracted from several Jomon vessels by a dilute hydrochloric acid after reheating them at various high temperature, and they concluded that their firing temperature may have been 700-800°C, or below. Recently in 1957, YAMADA and KONDO, applying the differential thermal analysis to prehistoric earthenwares from Hokkaido, measured their firing temperature as below 885°C.
From 1949 to 1951, the author had a chance to try some experiments concerning the physical properties of Jomon pottery, at the Laboratory of Ceramic Engineering, Tokyo University of Engineering (director-Prof. Dr. Chihiro KAWASHIMA). In this article, the author deals mainly with the thermal properties of Jomon pottery using on the results obtained then.

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