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Unique Mayan mask found in Mexico
By Patrick Pester - Staff Writer 4 hours ago
The mask has been reburied for its own protection.
The stucco mask of Ucanha being worked on by archaeologists
(Image: © INAH)
A giant Mayan mask as tall as a person has been revealed at an archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán.
The mask, which depicts the face of an unknown deity or elite person, was sculpted from the building material stucco and dates back to a period in Maya history known as the Late Preclassic (about 300 B.C. — A.D. 250), according to the news outlet Novedades Yucatán.
The discovery was made in 2017 at the archaeological site of Ucanha, near the modern-day city of Motul, and since then researchers with Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have worked painstakingly to restore it.
Stucco masks like this one "represent the faces of individuals with particular features that can be associated with deities or with characters of prominent social status," INAH said in a statement.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/mayan-mask-sculpture-revealed.html?utm_source=notification