Page 218 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

69

Bronze mask with hooked-cloud ornament
69
side
5
Height 85.4 (33 /s)
Late Shang Period (?) (c. 1300-1100 BCE?)
From Pit 2 at Sanxingdui, Guanghan,
Sichuan Province

Sanxingdui Museum, Guanghan, Sichuan Province

70
Bronze mask

7
Height 40.5 (15 A)
Late Shang Period (?) (c. 1300-1100 BCE?)
From Pit 2 at Sanxingdui, Guanghan,
Sichuan Province

Sanxingdui Museum, Guanghan, Sichuan Province

Pit 2, which contained the standing figure and the
most of the bronze heads, also held about fifteen
bronze masks, distinguished from the heads in
lacking necks, backs, and tops. Most are somewhat
larger than the heads, and all have small square
openings at their sides that must have been used
to attach them to some kind of support. Lines
visible across the forehead, behind the ears, and
under the jaw suggest that the bronze heads them-
selves may represent beings wearing masks, but
the basic physiognomy of the masks themselves
mirrors the facial features of the standing figure
and many of the Sanxingdui heads.
Three masks from Pit 2 stand apart, however,
distinguished from the heads and other masks
by a number of details: their cylindrical eyes pro-
trude grotesquely from elongated sockets and are
bounded by narrow lids; the tops of their ears are
drawn out at right angles and end in single points,
while their upturned mouths, ridged in the middle,
l
bestow an almost Archaic smile. Cat. 69, which
bore traces of black pigment around the eyes and
red on the mouth, has an ornament over the nose
resembling a hooked-cloud motif, composed of a
pair of spirals curling inward at the base and the
top and a blade-shaped device in the middle. Other

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