Mezcala area, Guerrero

5.4 inches wide, carved serpentine stone

This small, carved stone burial mask could be 1000 years old or much more. The two holes are drilled in from both sides to meet in the middle where the stone is quite thin. You want to see bi-conical drilling: drilled in from both sides to meet in the middle, each drill should be more like a U than a sharp V. Also from the back, I like the way the eyes have been worked and worked laborious over time. Nothing sharp or modern-looking about those eye holes.

I don’t know why the cheek (or jaw-line) cuts make the face so shortened. Perhaps it was intentionally made as a half-mask, or it could have been a correction made after part of the lower jaw was broken. The forehead, the brow-ridges, and bridge of the nose are quite handsome. Rare.

$800