eral system of lighting connected with this temple, as published in that author's work, "The Parthenon." The foundations had been found of one wall, apparently belonging to even a inore ancient structure than that of Pisistratus, which the author called, for convenience, the work of Deucalion, to whom the original foundation of the temple was assigned by a tradidition which Pausanias records.

Contemplated Excavations at Delphi.— An arrangement has been made between the Greek and French Governments, by which the latter is conceded the exclusive privilege of excavating at Delphi for five years. The ruins of the city are situated under the modern village of Kastri, and this is to be removed, the Greek Government paying the expense of extinguishing the titles to the property, while the French will bear the cost of the excavations. All objects recovered will remain the property of Greece, while the French will have the exclusive right of reproduction, publication, and multiplication of the objects found for five years after the discovery of each. Two previous experiments in investigating this interesting site were that of Karl Ottfried Müller at the southern wall of the terrace on which the Temple of the Pythian Apollo stood, who found fifty-two inscriptions, and that of the Ecole d'Athènes about twenty years ago, in continuation of Müller's work, the fruits of which are embodied in a considerable volume of Delphic inscriptions that are regarded as of great value for the history of the Amphictyonic League and the city of Delphi.

Ruins at Thasos.-Mr. J. Theodore Bent, excavating in the island of Thasos in behalf of the Hellenic Society and the British Archæological Association, has recovered a number of interesting marbles and about forty inscriptions. The most important relics brought to light were a Roman arch and the theatre. The Roman arch appears to have been erected by the Thasiotes to the honor of the imperial family, and to commemorate the victories over the barbarians. It was fifty-four feet in length, and consisted of three entrances, the central one being twenty feet wide. Of the columns one of the inner ones was intact, and stood nine feet nine inches high, with a scroll-pattern running down one angle. Capitals decorated on two sides only, with floral devices in very high relief, and an egg and tongue pattern below, had adorned these columns. Fragments of six of these capitals were found. Above the capitals appears to have run, both behind the arch and in front, a rich frieze, two feet six inches wide, in blocks of marble from seven to ten feet in length, below which in front ran the inscription in two lines in Greek letters, embodying the legend, "The reverend and great city of Thasos to the greatest and most divine emperor, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, well deserving of his country, great Bretannikos, great Germanikos. The city of Thasos to Julia Domna. The city of Thasos to the God L.

Septimius Severus and to Pertinax." Above the frieze was a projecting cornice, and on the top of this had rested a large statue of a man struggling with a lion, fragments of which were found beneath the débris of the arch. In front of the two central columns of the arch stood four pedestals, carrying statues, and with inscriptions, and in front of the columns nearest the city stood a pedestal, the inscription of which told that the statue it bore was erected by the senate "to their mother Phloneibia Sabina, the most worthy arch-priestess of incomparable ancestors, the first and only lady who had ever received equal honors to those who were in the Senate." The statue was found, almost entirely preserved, representing a young and handsome woman gracefully robed. In the same neighborhood were found fragmentary remains of a Doric building of much earlier date, on one stone of which was an inscription to Ceraunian Zeus, with a thunderbolt underneath it. Of the theatre, which was situated about five hundred feet above the level of the town, the lines of the seats, the semicircle of the orchestra, and the colonnade behind the stage erections, alone were visible. The seats were separated from the orchestra by a wall of twenty-seven large marble blocks, on each of which had been inscribed two large letters, the purpose of which is supposed to have been to indicate the number of the seats. Along the top of this wall ran iron railings to protect the seats. Letters, names, and initials were found to have been cut on all the seats.

In the southern part of the island, at a spot called Alki, were found the remains of a town of considerable size, which had been built upon an isthmus, and was joined to the capital of the island by a road built of irregular blocks of marble, parts of which could still be seen intact. Of the many buildings found, the most interesting was a large Temple of Apollo, with part of an archaic statue of the god and votive tablets offered by mariners to various gods. Pedestals of other statues were found, including one of Athena, and also a small altar to Dionysus. While the temple was probably dedicated to Apollo in the first place, it seems to have become in later times the recognized shrine of many gods.

Tomb of a Lady.-In digging a trench in the Great Varda Street, Thessalonica, at a depth of two and a half metres, a marble sarcophagus of the pre-Christian Roman period was discovered, which seems to have contained the body of a lady of rank. Handsome ear-rings, rings, a gold chain, a brooch, and other articles, were found near it. The sarcophagus was covered in every part with fine and well-preserved reliefs.

Contemplated Excavation of Sybaris.-The Italian Government has determined upon the excavation of Sybaris, which was famed in ancient times as one of the most splendid and luxurious cities of Magna Græcia, and has placed the work under the charge of Prof. Viola. The

fact that it was suddenly destroyed at the moment of its highest prosperity, B. c. 510, coupled with the soft alluvial character of the deposit, like that of Olympia, with which it is buried, encourages the hope that its treasures may be found in a well-preserved condition.

Spain and France. Ancient Sepulchres of l'Argar and Fuente Alamo.-The MM. Siret, of Brussels, in their books, "Les Premiers Ages du Metal dans le Sud-est de l'Espagne," describe some thirty prehistoric stations, furnishing relics of the ages of stone, copper, and bronze of which about twelve thousand objects have been collected. The sepultures present some very interesting characteristics; among them are ex

the woman was found a fillet of silver. Upon the bones of the other skeleton lay a flat bronze sword studded with rivets. Beautiful pieces of pottery, which had been made without the aid of the wheel, and footless vases, were deposited in the tomb. In another instance, a silver diadem, somewhat like the one just mentioned, but complete, was found upon the head of the skeleton. It was a simple fillet of metal, with an appendage made of a thin plate of silver, occupying a curious position which suggests that some accident must have happened to disturb it during or after burial. Ear-buckles to a round shape, and beads of bone or stone, completed the list of ornaments found in this tomb.

amples of inhumation in jars and in cists constructed of blocks of stone. The arms, tools, and vessels of the deceased were usually placed with him in the tomb; if a man, his hatchet; if a woman, her poignard and bodkin; and jewelry with both sexes, but most abundantly with the female. The jars containing the dead were deposited in a horizontal position with the mouth closed by a stone. In the jar represented in the figure, which was found at l'Argar, were found near the skull three spiral ear-pendants, two of which are of bronze and three of copper. Pieces of linen cloth were still adhering to them; a ring was upon one of the fingers of the skeleton, and beside it lay a bodkin indicating its sex. At the station of Fuente Alamo, of the same age as l'Argar, the burial-places were made of slabs of stone. One of them was 0.82 metre long, 0.55 m. broad, and 0.50 m. deep, and contained the bodies of a man and a woman. Among the débris under the skull of

In another tomb was found a bracelet, weighing 114 grains, made of rolled golden wire.

Roman Necropolis at Carmona.-The existence of a Roman necropolis at Carmona, near Seville, has been known for several years. The site is marked by mounds which have proved to be tumuli of a prehistoric age. Around these mounds the Romans had hewed small chambers out of the rock to serve as family tombs. They are from four to five yards square, and of the height of a man. In the walls are small cavities or niches for the cinerary urns, each of which generally contains, besides the ashes of the dead, a coin, a mirror, a lachrymary, needles, a stylus and tabula, and a signet-ring. The walls are mostly painted in fresco or distemper in the Pompeiian style, with representations of birds, dolphins, and wreaths of flowers. Near the entrance of each tomb is the crematorium, an o7en, also hewed out of the rock, on the sides of all of which signs of fire

are still visible. The 320 tombs which have so far been discovered are disposed in groups, around the tumuli, near the Roman quarry, and on both sides of the Roman roads. The excavations during the past year have been carried on under the direction of the Spanish Government and the Royal Academies of History and the Fine Arts of Madrid. They have brought to light near the Roman roads, a columbarium and three large triclinia for the funeral banquets, in each of which a deep channel is provided, into which the guests threw the libations. The largest of the triclinia contains three tables with their couches, the one for winter use being in a hall, another in the sun, and the third, for the snmmer, in the shade. Besides these were found an altar, a tomb with its cinerary urns, a kitchen, a bath, a well, and a sanctuary in which is a stone statue. About three thousand objects of interest were found, and some of considerable value.

Neolithic Polishing-Stones at Nemours.-Several stones, on which the neolithic men polished their implements, have been observed near Nemours, in France. They are a fine-grained sandstone with calcareous cementing material, and are marked by depressions of various shapes and sizes; some, narrow, deep, and pointed at either end, appear to be the grooves in which the hatchet-edges were sharpened; others, broader and nearly hemispherical, were adapted to the polishing of arms broadside. There are about a dozen of these stones at the Gué du Beaumoulin, on the right bank of the Loing river, bearing some fifty grooves and twenty-five cup-shaped depressions, and suggesting that a considerable businesss was carried on at the place. The site is not more than a metre above the present level of the river, a fact that shows that the waters did not at that time rise much, if any, higher than now. Another polishing-stone, in the wood of Laveau, has eight parallel grooves from 60 to 80 centimetres long, together with several plain or slightly concave places, which have been worn down by the rubbing of the sides of the hatchets. Another polisher, a megalith, near the mouth of the Loing, has but one groove and one cup, but is remarkable for being of the same stone as the larger polisher of Beaumoulin, and evidently came from the same spot. Another stone, called the Devil's Rock, is associated in popular belief with a curious legend of the devil playing at quoits.

Syria and Palestine; Syrian School of Archæology. -Arrangements have been made for the establishment of a "School of Biblical Archaology and Philology" in connection with the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut. Its purpose will be to afford students the opportunity of studying the Bible in the country where it was written; to promote the study of all the Semite languages, and to afford facilities for research among the ruins and antique relics of the country. It was intended to open the school in October, 1887.

The Rock-cut Tombs of Sidon.-Some quarrymen working in March, about a mile northeast of Sidon, discovered a shaft, open at the top, about 30 feet square and 35 or 40 feet deep. When this was cleared out, doors were found in each of the perpendicular walls, leading to four chambers, in addition to which other chambers were afterward discovered. The walls of the shaft were perfectly oriented. The whole was excavated out of the white limestone; but the walls separating the chambers from the main shaft were built up. The excavation and examination of the chambers were conducted under the direction of Hamdi Bey, of the Imperial Museum at Constantinople. In the southeast chamber lay a large sarcophagus, with a conically gable-roofed lid, of the same shape with seven sarcophagi which had been previously discovered at different times in the province of Lycia. This sarcophagus was decorated with elaborate and artistic sculptures of two winged sphinxes on the rear pediment; a pair of centaurs at either end, the one pair quarreling over a captured stag, and the other pair pouring jugs of water over each other; on the sides, four-horse chariots driven by Amazons, and a boar-hunt. In the east chamber were two sarcophagi, the principal one of which is in the form of a Greek temple, with a gable-roofed cover. Its sculptures include groups of female mourners on the pediments; a hunting-scene on the panel that skirts the base, in which are portrayed wild boars, panthers, lions, bears, bucks, and byenas; a representation of the funeral scene on the panels extending along the upper edge of the sides; Doric pilasters at the corners, and Ionic columns around the whole, between which are mourning damsels, eighteen in all, each differing from all the others in pose, features, and expression. The north chamber contained two white-marble sarcophagi in the Egyptian style, of the shape known as anthropoidal sarcophagi, having all the variations in the contour of the human form represented. Two other chambers opened out from this one at a lower level, the northwestern of which contained four sarcophagi, only one of which was sculptured. This bore figures dressed in the Assyrian style, with a funeral scene, in which the deceased, stretched upon a funeral-couch, wears an Assyrian tiara. He is guarded by servants, and watched by his wife, and food and drink are offered to him. The west chamber contained one mummy-cased sarcophagus. The southwest chamber, more remote from the entrance, was larger, richer in contents, and more elaborately arranged than the others. It contained in the hither side three white-marble sarcophagi, of the Greek temple shape, covered with rich cornices, and ornamented with a tracery of yellow-leaved vines upon a purple background. Beyond there was a fourth sarcophagus, which is described as being one of the most remarkable specimens of ancient art yet brought to notice anywhere. It is 3:30 metre long, 1·70

metre wide, and 1:40 metre high, with a cover .80 metre high, and walls nearly 40 metre thick. On one side and end is portrayed a battle between Greeks and Persians, and on the other side and end a chase, in which the recent combatants unite. The Greeks are nude, wearing only a helmet, and carrying a great round grooved shield. The Persians are completely clothed, wearing the head-dress called the mitre, and long trousers. One of the principal Greek characters in the battle wears a headdress made of a lion's skin, and may have been intended to refer to Alexander the Great. The chase-scene gives a representation of a lion attacking a horse, whose rider has pierced the assailant with his spear. The figures stand out in a bold relief, and the whole is colored in various shades, in which combinations of Tyrian purple prevail. These sarcophagi, all apparently Greek, are supposed to belong to different ages, according to their several styles; but no clew to the dates of any of them was found, unless it be contained in some coins found near the last one that bore the stamp of Alexander Baia, 149 to 144 B. C. Two Phoenician sarcophagi of black marble were also found. One was found in the east chamber, under the sarcophagus of the eighteen female mourners, and contained a skull with long black hair, in good preservation, and the skeleton of a woman with remnants of bandages, articles of ornament, etc. The second was found in a separate shaft, in which at first only two bronze candelabra were discovered. The floor of this chamber was formed of great blocks of stone, below which were two other layers still thicker, and beneath this a monolith of ten cubic metres, covering a pit cut in the solid rock. In this pit lay an anthropoidal sarcophagus, which has been compared with the sarcophagus of Ashmanezer in the Louvre, from which, however, it presents some striking differences. carvings consist of a head, a winged globe, a kneeling female figure, two erect Egyptian idols, eleven vertical lines of hieroglyphics, and seven and a half lines of Phoenician letters. The sarcophagus was nearly filled with water, and within it lay the body of a young man, with the desh, except where it had not been covered with water, still tender and firm, but of a bluish tint, with the internal organs intact. Several translations or paraphrases of the Phonician inscription on this sarcophagus have been offered, all of which are in substantial agreement. The one given by Baltaji Bey, Director of Antiquities at Smyrna, reads: "I Tabnith, priest of Astarte, and king of Sidon, son of Ashmanezer, priest of Astarte and king of Sidon, lying in this tomb, say: 'Do not open my tomb, for there is in it no gold, nor silver, nor treasures. He who opens this tomb shall have no prosperity under the sun, and shall not find rest in his own sepulchre.""

The

The City of Tiberias.-Herr Schumaker has traced the whole wall of Herod's City of Tiberias, on the Lake of Tiberias. It is three

miles in length, and is in shape an oblong, the long side of which is presented to the lake. At its southwest corner rises a hillock five hundred feet in height, crowned with ruins which were noticed, but not examined, by Col. Kitchener at the time of his survey. The ancient wall of Tiberias ran up, and was connected with a strong wall round this hill. Within the wall are ruins, probably of Herod's palace, certainly of a fort. This is then adjudged to have been the Acropolis of Tiberias, which is now proved to have been in the time of Jesus no mean village, but a considerable city, dominated and guarded by a stronghold situated on an elevation of five hundred feet.

The Hittite (Hamath) Inscription.-Capt. C. R. Conder has published in the book, "Altaic Hieroglyphs and Hittite Inscriptions," the results of his studies of the inscriptions of the class formerly called Hamathite, and at a later period, Hittite inscriptions. These inscriptions had been found at Hamath, Aleppo, Carchemish, and through Asia Minor, and had for many years furnished one of the most interesting questions of Oriental archæology. For a long time their origin was in deep doubt, and it was only after evidence had accumulated from the frequent mentions of them in Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions that the Hittites were a more important people than had been supposed, that the consensus of a considerable number of Oriental scholars accredited them to that nation. Even then they remained undecipherable, because the language in which they were written was unknown. Capt. Conder claims, or hopes, that he has found a key to the reading of this writing, which he calls the Altaic system, which may be accepted by Orientalists as simple and demonstrable, and to have identified the language as belonging to the family of Ugro-Altaic dialects; and he presents in his book the evidence on which his belief rests. He was led to the special investigation by the detection of resemblances of certain of the characters in the texts with particular characters in the Cypriote syllabary, and by the observation of a connection between certain combinations and Accadian word-roots. The symbols appear to have been originally ideographic-or representing objects; but to have lost their original ideographic meaning, and to have become "representative of certain distinct sounds articularly connected in definite grammatical structure." Capt. Conder's conclusion is, that the characters are connected with the Cypriote charac ters, and that the vocabulary and grammar of the language are Accadian, or nearly related to it. Upon these bases, he has deciphered and published tentative translations of ten of the principal inscriptions. These he finds to be religious in their character, being mostly invocations. None of them are historical. Paleographists are generally agreed with Capt. Conder in supposing a connection between the Altaic and the Cypriote characters. But his

identification of the language with the Accadian stock, and the correctness of his translations, are questioned.

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, an independent republic of South America. (For details of area, population, etc., see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1883.)

Government. The President is Dr. Juarez Celman, whose term of office will expire on Oct. 12, 1892. The Vice-President is Señor Cárlos Pellegrini. The Cabinet was composed of the following ministers: Interior, Dr. Eduardo Wilde; Foreign Affairs, Q. Costa; Finance, Dr. Pacheco; Justice, F. Posse; War and Navy, General Racedo. The Argentine Minister at Washington is Señor Quesada, and the Consul at New York, Señor Adolfo G. Calvo. The American Minister-Resident and Consul-General at Buenos Ayres is Hon. Bayless W. Hanna. Army and Navy.-The army of the republic, exclusive of the National Guard, according to latest official returns, was 7,324 strong, comprising 3,550 infantry, 2.844 cavalry, and 930 artillery. The National Guard was 347,653 strong.

On March 15 a decree reorganized the infantry, which in future is to be composed of twelve regiments of three battalions, each regiment to have one battalion of troops of the line, and two of National Guards, the battalions to number 250 rank and file in times of peace, and 500 in war-tine.

The navy consists of 37 vessels, mounting 72 guns, of a total tonnage of 16,112, with 12,855 indicated horse power, manned by 1,926 sailors. There are three iron-clads, four gunboats, seven torpedo-boats, three steam transports, four cruisers, and sixteen smaller steam and sailing craft. The Minister of the Navy decreed in March the formation of a squadron of evolutions. The manoeuvres lasted from April 20 to April 30 at Punta Lara, whence the squad

ron went to sea.

Finances. In May, 1887, the foreign indebtedness of the republic amounted to $93,882,962, and the home debt to $53,792,320; total, $147,675,282. The income in 1886 was $46,634,000, and the expenditures $46,615,000.

During the summer of 1887 the Government resolved to convert certain outstanding bonds; these were $3,582,315 9 per cent. treasury bonds of 1875, $458,106 of the 1858 foreign loan, and $874,251 1863 bonds of the home debt. For the treasury bonds the Government gave 5 per cent. foreign bonds with 1 per cent. annually set aside for the sinking fund thereof, receiving the treasury bonds in payment at 103 per cent. The Government furthermore succeeded in floating among German bankers a 5 per cent gold loan to the amount of $10,291,000 at 90, to be refunded when due at the rate of 4 marks (96 cents) per dollar. This was the first Argentine loan ever placed in Germany, yet it was subscribed for eight times over. The Argentine Government also found a market in Europe for the "cédulas," or mort

gage-bonds of the Banco Nacional Hipotecario, bearing 7 per cent. interest, and guaranteed by the Argentine Republic, $20,000,000 having been issued thereof under provisions of the law of Sept. 24, 1886, with 1 per cent. per annum drawn for their gradual extinguishment. During the first six months of 1887, the customs' revenue collected at Buenos Ayres produced the following amounts: January, $2,877,695; February, $2,584,692; March, $3,727,911; April, $3,240,882; May, $2,890,100; June, $2,413,309; total, $17,784,589. Between January 1 and August 8, the amount collected was $21,059,780, against $17,042,900 during the corresponding period of 1886.

The suspension of specie payment decreed in 1885, which expired on Jan. 9, 1887, was prolonged for two years. The share capital of the National Bank was increased during the summer of 1887 to $47,273.400. The vote of November, 1886, approving the budget estimate for 1887, fixed the allowance to members of Congress, both senators and deputies, at $8,400.

Railroads. The extension of the railway system has been as rapid as the increase in commerce. In 1884 there were fewer than 2,500 miles in operation; in 1885 there were 4,947; and on Jan. 1, 1887, 6,161 miles constructed at a total cost of $175,000,000 in gold. The Andine Railroad extends from Buenos Ayres to the boundary-line of Chili, and there has been a hope that the Government of that republic would either build up to it or permit some private corporation to do so. But the recent action of the Congress of Chili indicates that the gap of 140 miles between the two oceans, west of the Cordilleras, would remain. There appears to be a decided opposition in Chili to the construction of this road, on the supposition that it would cause much of the merchandise now shipped around through the Straits of Magellan to enter at the port of Buenos Ayres, and thus rob Valparaiso of its commercial prestige. The Argentine Government has granted a concession to a company to to construct another transcontinental line from Bahia Blanca, a port 200 miles south of Buenos Ayres to the port of Talcahuano on the Pacific coast, where are extensive coal-mines. The Argentine Government guarantees a dividend of 6 per cent. on the actual cost of the road for twenty years, and gives a generous grant of the public domain. This road would make a large part of the pampas accessible, and give the Argentines a chance at the fuel-deposits of Chili. At present all the coal used in the Argentine Republic, or by ships entering the harbor, has either to be brought around through the Straits of Magellan or from Europe. But it is apprehended that the Government of Chili will refuse to concur in the concession, even to the extent of refusing permission for the construction of the road, for the same reason that it objects to the other transcontinental line. The Argentine Congress, during its last session in 1886, passed a bill ordering surveys for the