Bronze Animal Mask

Sanxingdui Museum

This large 66cm (26in) mask, with its strange telescopic eyes, outswept ears, and slit curving nose, is obviously of a different type from the preceeding human-like masks. It is classified as an animal by the museum label. Perhaps it can be regarded as a totemic ancestor, although such an interpretation can only be speculative at this point.

The opening on the forehead probably held an attachment like the one on the following page.