

ARCHAEOLOGY. 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



31 



ing bowls and platters, portions of several hundred 

 dishes of fine stone, together with numerous ala- 

 baster and slate dishes, about sixty of which bore 

 royal inscriptions; (4) the impressions of seals on 

 the closing of the wine jars, of which 88 different 

 inscriptions were now drawn; (5) the labels and 

 tablets of ivory and ebony, of which parts of 30 

 had been found with inscriptions; and (6) the in- 

 numerable pieces of carving in slate, ebony, ivory, 

 and stones. A collection of these objects was ex- 

 hibited at University College, London, early in 

 July. Among them a group of ^Egean pottery, of 

 forms hitherto unknown, from the tomb of King 

 Mersekha-Semenptah, was considered very remark- 

 able. It appeared evidently of the same family as 

 the Mycenaean pottery of later times. Prof. Petrie 

 speaks of it as dated by the tomb to about 4500 

 B. c., and as giving the earliest fixed point yet 

 known in the history of Greek civilization. Be- 

 sides the articles belonging to the kings of the 

 first dynasty were some appertaining to two pre- 

 Menite kings, the extreme beauty of some of which 

 especially a carved hand " seems to indicate 

 that they were the products of the zenith of a 

 long artistic history." 



In a paper on the system of writing in ancient 

 Egypt, read in the British Association, Mr. F. H. 

 Griffith remarked that Egyptology was now reach- 

 ing a position where it might contribute trust- 

 worthy information for the benefit of kindred re- 

 searches. Egyptian writing consisted of ideo- 

 graphic and phonetic elements. The highest de- 

 velopment shown was an alphabet, which, how- 

 ever, was never used independently of other signs. 

 Apparently not acrophonic in origin, it represented 

 consonants and semiconsonants only, vocalization 

 not being recorded by Egyptian writing. Phono- 

 grams were derived from word signs. The end of 

 the native system was brought about by the grad- 

 ual adoption of the Greek character, beginning 

 perhaps in the second century A. D. Although the 

 Egyptian system of writing might not be actually 

 a stage in the history of our alphabet, it threw a 

 strong light on the development of the alphabetic 

 system ; and the survival of its pictorial form for 

 decorative purposes enabled us to recognize the 

 highly ramified connections between the forms and 

 meanings of characters to an extent impossible at 

 present in any other system, whether in Mesopo- 

 tamia, China, or elsewhere. The results of recent 

 Egyptian philology proved that Egyptian was 

 originally a Semitic language, though its character 

 changed early. The main lines of the grammar 

 being at length established, the materials for a 

 complete dictionary were now being collected and 

 classified. 



A papyrus assigned to the twelfth dynasty, 

 which was discovered at Kaluen in 1898, contains 

 data which are regarded by Prof. Borchard, of 

 Cairo, as furnishing an important aid in fixing the 

 date of that period, a point regarding which the 

 extreme estimates differ to the extent of about 

 twelve hundred years. The papyrus belongs ap- 

 parently to a class of records of daily events kept 

 by the priests in the temple. Among the items is 

 a note respecting the first rising in the year of 

 Sirius (or Sothis), at daybreak, as occurring on 

 the 16th day of the eighth month of the seventh 

 year of King Usertesen III, and embodying direc- 

 tions for the proper observance of the day. In 

 another part of the papyrus is a record, dated on 

 the 17th day of the month, the day following the 

 festival, of the festival donations that were made 

 " on the appearance of Sirius." Applying an as- 

 tronomical method advocated by Oppolzer, Dr. 

 Brix has computed that the phenomenon men- 

 tioned took place about 1873-76 B. c. This would 



bring the date of the twelfth dynasty down to 

 about eight hundred years later than the date 

 accepted by Prof. Petrie. 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, a federal repub- 

 lic in South America. The legislative power is 

 vested in the Congress, consisting of a Senate of 

 30 members, 2 from each province and the federal 

 district, and a House of Representatives, number- 

 ing 133, the ratio being fixed by the Constitution 

 of 1898 at 1 to 33,000 inhabitants. Representa- 

 tives are elected for four years, one half being 

 renewed every second year; Senators for nine 

 years, the provincial Legislatures and the elec- 

 toral college of the capital electing every third 

 year a third of the Senate. The President is 

 chosen for a term of six years by an elective 

 body chosen by the people. The* President of 

 the republic is Gen. Julio A. Roca, who entered 

 upon his office on Oct. 12, 1898; the Vice-Presi- 

 dent is Dr. Norberto Quirno Costa. The Cab- 

 inet appointed by President Roca was composed 

 as follows: Minister of the Interior, Dr. Felipe 

 Yofre; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, 

 Dr. Amancio Alcorta; Minister of Finance, Dr. 

 Jose M. Rosa; Minister of Justice, Dr. Oswaldo 

 Magnasco; Minister of War, Gen. Luis Maria 

 Campos; Minister of Marine, Commodore Martin 

 Rivadavia; Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Martin 

 Garcia Merou; Minister of Public Works, Dr. 

 Emilio Civit. 



Area and Population. The area of the re- 

 public is 1,778,195 square miles. The population 

 in 1899 was estimated at 4,569,000. Buenos Ayres, 

 the chief city, had 779,872 inhabitants. The num- 

 ber of immigrants in 1898 was 95,190, of whom 

 39,135 were Italians, 18,716 Spaniards, 2,449 

 French, 1,503 Turks, 779 Germans, 632 British, and 

 31,976 from other countries. 



Finances. The revenue in 1898 was $33,878,- 

 263 in gold and $49,744,214 in paper; expendi- 

 ture, $20,931,551 in gold and $93,072,745 in paper. 

 The revenue for 1899 was estimated at $41,870,867 

 in gold and $69,822,000 in paper, and the expendi- 

 ture at $26,453,272 in gold and $101,170,399 in 

 paper. The budget estimate of revenue for 1900 

 was $45,981,735 in gold, of which $37,500,000 came 

 from import and $2,500,000 from export duties, 

 and $67,122,000 in paper, of which the spirit tax 

 produces $16,000,000; the tobacco tax, $9,000,000; 

 wine, sugar, and matches, $7,800,000; beer and 

 other taxes, $2,681,000; sanitary works, $5,- 

 100,000; land tax, $2,900,000; stamps and licenses, 

 $9,310,000; posts and telegraphs, $4,550,000; land 

 sales and leases, $4,000,000; railroads, $3,209,000; 

 national bank, $2,000,000; various sources, $572,- 

 000. The gold expenditure for 1900 was estimated 

 at $32,946,813, of which $23,147,962 represent the 

 service of the debt and $9,515,250 extraordinary 

 expenditure. The estimated expenditure in paper 

 was $95,447,513, of which the Ministry of the In- 

 terior and Congress required $16,666,656 ; the 

 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, $1,097,520; the Min- 

 istry of Finance, $7,115,420; the public debt, $11,- 

 695,218; the Ministry of Justice, Education, and 

 Worship, $16.605,678; the Ministry of War, $16,- 

 011,057; the Ministry of Marine, $11,955,680; the 

 Ministry of Agriculture, $1,911,620; the Ministry 

 of Public Works, $6,302,664; extraordinary ex- 

 penditures, $6,086,000. At the opening of Con- 

 gress on May 1, 1900, the expenditure for 1899 

 was stated to have been $7,000,000 below the esti- 

 mate, excluding special expenditure amounting to 

 $13,500,000. The receipts were $45,676,000 in gold 

 and $61,420,000 in currency. 



The national foreign loans in July, 1899. 

 amounted to 45,123,408, in addition to which 

 there were provincial, municipal, and railroad 



