ARCHEOLOGY. (AFRICA.) 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



31 



below these the remains of several continuous 

 prehistoric periods, he devised a plan of classify- 

 ing the whole mass by a card catalogue. He 

 then tabulated his results, and obtained a sort 

 of chronological scheme by means of which the 

 development in the fashioning of pots may be fol- 

 lowed from a period far anterior to Menes 

 through successive prehistoric strata into the 

 continuous line of kings of the first dynasty. 



A description and translation are published by 

 Jules Nicole, of Geneva, in the Archiv fiir Papy- 

 ruskunde of a fragment of a papyrus on which 

 are written questions and answers concerning 

 surgical operations, showing how surgical exami- 

 nations were conducted in Egypt eighteen cen- 

 turies ago. Its contents, so far as they have 

 been preserved, indicate that a fair knowledge 

 01 anatomy existed; and the subject is treated 

 from very like a modern point of view. The 

 questions are such as might be properly asked 

 in a medical school of the present day. Another 

 article by Prof. Otto Gradenwitz, of Konigsberg, 

 cites two documents from the Berlin papyri, giv- 

 ing evidence that banks existed in Egypt, and 

 issued and accepted checks and bills of exchange. 

 The form of these drafts is more complicated 

 than present forms; but "they amounted simply 

 to orders to pay a certain sum of money to a 

 certain person clearly specified and to charge the 

 same to the account of the undersigned." 



Carthaginia. The excavations made during 

 the past twenty-five years on the site of ancient 

 Carthage by Father A. L. Delattre have restored 

 most of the outline of the city, and furnished 

 much light upon its life and antiquities. The 

 work has consisted largely of exploration of 

 tombs, of which more than 1,100 of the oldest 

 period, between the sixth and eighth centuries 

 B. c., have been excavated. The finds illustrate 

 the political and business relations of Carthage 

 at that period, and the prevalence of Egyptian 

 and Phoenician influences in earlier, of Greek 

 and Roman in later times. They include arm- 

 lets, rings, chains, and coins, in gold, silver, 

 bronze, glass, terra-cotta, etc. The specimens 

 have been deposited in a special museum estab- 

 lished by the White Mission Brotherhood of 

 Northern Africa. A full account of the discover- 

 ies, by Albert Mayr, was published in the Beilage 

 of the Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 130. 



Africa. Results of six years' systematic ex- 

 plorations among the prehistoric remains be- 

 tween the Zambesi and Linepopo rivers, South 

 Africa, are given in the book of R. A. Hall and 

 W. G. Neal, entitled The Ancient Ruins of Rho- 

 desia. Nearly 200 ruins were investigated by the 

 authors and Mr. George Johnson, under grants 

 from the chartered company. More than 500 

 temples, citadels, enclosures, chains of forts, gold 

 workings, and terraced slopes are reported from 

 various districts covering a total area of at least 

 115,000 square miles, not one-tenth part of which 

 has as yet been thoroughly explored. Structures 

 are found among these ruins of earlier and of 

 later dates, and the authors have classified them 

 under four categories, of which the periods range 

 from 1000 or possibly 2000 B. c. down to the ad- 

 vent of the Mohammedan Arabs and the Portu- 

 guese. The buildings of the first period, as at the 

 Great Zimbabwe, are marked by great solidity 

 and superior workmanship. The massive walls 

 of dry masonry rest upon the bed-rock, and are 

 often 15 or 17 feet thick at the base. They are 

 skilfully built, and are ornamented with various 

 decorative patterns. These are ascribed to the 

 South Arabian Himyarites by Theodore Bent, Dr. 

 Schachter, and Mr. A. H. Keane. The structures 



of the second period are less substantial than 

 these, and are inferior to them in other respects, 

 and are assigned to the Phoenicians. They are 

 built upon the other monuments or constitute 

 extensions to them, and also occur by themselves 

 in the districts farther removed from the eastern 

 coast. One class of structures are recognized as 

 slave pits. Extensive terraced slopes in the In- 

 yanze and Mount Fura districts resemble those 

 of the Yemen uplands. Other finds are repre- 

 sented in quartz crushers, gold-smelting works, 

 gold crucibles showing gold in the flux, and 

 massive gold objects, beads, bangles, plates, wire,, 

 pegs, nails, ferules, etc., which have characteris- 

 tics of the monuments of the first period. " All 

 the branches of the goldsmith's art were prac- 

 tised by them," the authors say, " including gold 

 wire-drawing, beating gold into thin sheets, pla- 

 ting iron and bronze with gold, and burnishing." 

 The conditions all go to indicate that the South 

 Arabian Himyarite occupation of this region 

 was a settled one. 



A- brief general account of Christian antiqui- 

 ties in the Soudan awaiting exploration has been 

 published by Mr. John Ward, F. S. A. The site 

 of Soba, on the Blue Nile, contains the ruins of 

 several Christian temples. It was visited by 

 Col. Stanton, governor of Khartoum, who began 

 preparations for having the ruins cleared and 

 photographed. At Naga, 80 miles north of Soba, 

 are extensive ruins, including 5 temples of 

 Roman architecture with avenues of figures of 

 paschal lambs leading up to them. Hieroglyphic 

 inscriptions were found, and the composite capi- 

 tals at both places bore the figure of the cross. 

 The natives say that similar ruins are spread 

 all over the country. Sculptured rocks and tem- 

 ples are to be found 80 miles east of Khartoum,, 

 and temples are said to be known as far away as 

 Darfur. 



Central Asia. A number of manuscripts 

 said to have been found in Chinese Turkestan, 

 in the desert north of a caravan route between 

 Guma and.Khotan, which were offered to the 

 attention of archeologists several years ago, 

 have been a subject of investigation by M. A. 

 Stein, and have been found by him to be fraudu- 

 lent. Mr. Stein, who is engaged in archeological 

 explorations in Chinese Turkestan, met the al- 

 leged discoverer of the manuscripts Islam Ak- 

 hum and obtained a confession of the fraud 

 . from him. Mr. Stein made many, and some impor- 

 tant, discoveries, particularly in the Dandan Uilig 

 ruins and in the remains on the Niya river. Some 

 Chinese manuscripts of the eighth century found 

 at Dandan Uilig are of interest as being descrip- 

 tive of the social conditions existing at that 

 period. One of them is a bond given in exchange 

 for a loan of money, and another is a document 

 of a similar kind relating to grain. In both cases 

 the lender is a Buddhist priest, and the terms of 

 the loan are very strict. At the Niya ruins Mr. 

 Stein found wooden tablets bearing Kharoshthi 

 writing, which is assigned to the time of the 

 Khurshana or Indo-Scythian kings of the first 

 two centuries of the Christian era. 



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 2 from 

 the federal district, and a House of Representa- 

 tives, numbering 86, 1 to every 20.000 inhabitant <. 

 One-third of the Senators and one-half of the Rep- 

 resentatives are replaced every two years. The- 

 President and Vice-President are elected by direct 

 popular vote for six years. The President of the- 

 republic, inaugurated on Oct. 12, 1898, is Gen. 



