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.
- (PF.0328b)
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