Olmec Granite Funerary Mask, 500 BCE - 100 CE
Granite
6.6
PF.0328b
Further images
Like so much else from the Olmec world, the exact function of this magnificent mask remains shrouded in mystery. We can guess that it figured prominently in funerary rites, perhaps...
Like so much else from the Olmec world, the exact function of this magnificent mask remains shrouded in mystery. We can guess that it figured prominently in funerary rites, perhaps giving to the deceased--as with the gold masks from Mycenae, the mummy portraits of Egypt and the wax ancestor images of Rome--the appearance of perpetual life. In the presence of this powerful mask we feel the very human emotions, the fears, the questions about the unknown which the passage of centuries has yet to answer.
Literature
V4