#212 Argentina...Thanks Horacio!

These stamps are from Archaeological Artifacts definitives issued in 2000.

The 50c stamp shows Andean verticle loom from Mapuche culture.

The Mapuche are one of the indigenous inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina.Mapuche make up about 4% of the Chilean population,who are particularly concentrated in the Araucania Region.

Many Mapuche descendants now live across southern Chile and Argentina; some maintain their traditions and continue living from agriculture, but a growing majority have migrated to cities in search of better economic opportunities.

The 25c stamp shows a musical pipes called Siku.

Siku is a traditional Andean panpipe. This instrument is the main instrument used in a musical genre known as the Sikuri. It is traditionally found all across the Andes but is more typically associated with music from the regions around Lake Titicaca. Historically because of the complicated mountain geography of the region, and due to other factors, in some regions each community would develop its own type of siku, with its own special tuning, shape and size. Additionally each community developed its own style of playing. Today the siku has been standardized to fit in with modern western forms of music and has been transported from its traditional roots.

The $2 stamp shows a Mapuche Tambor drum.

The $5 stamp shows a Funerary Urn from Belén culture.

The $10 stamp shows a Vessel from Yocavil culture,which is a tribe of Diaguita people,who developed between the 8th and 16th centuries in what are now the provinces of Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja and Tucumán in northwestern Argentina, and in the Atacama and Coquimbo regions of northern Chile.