mask (ansiktsmask), mask

Avgjutning i nat. storlek av ansiktsmask av granit från Tairona-kultur, Dep. Magdalena. Avgjutningen gjord vid Instituto Colombiano de Antropología i Bogotá (där originalet finns) på beställning och betalning av Henrry Wassén år 1955. Om denna mask meddelar Dr.

Gerardo Reichell-Dolmatoff följande i brev av 25/4 1956 (finns i korrespondensen): "The material is dark-grey granite with some darker och lighter speckles. The surface is finely polished. The size of the cast corresponds to the original. This mask was found by an old woman at the spot called Chicharrón, on the upper río Córdoba, Western slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in 1946. The object was found in a "treassure-jar" (Mason's term), my Estilo G (Cf Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1954, Rev. Col. Ant. vol. II, pp. 189-190). The vessel is now in the Sta. Marta Museum. It was superficially buried in a site where there are many surface features. I visited the place in 1947 and was able to secure th mask and the vessel from a neighbour who had bought it from the old woman for 2 pesos. Although the vessel is slightly atypical (fired in reducing athmosphere and decorated with zoned-incised and punctate motifs), I belive it is Tairona IIa, i.e. proto-historic, the same as the mask. A rather inadequate illustraion of the vessel is given on plate X, fig.2, of the abovementioned paper." (katalogkort/originalbeskrivning)