Obsidian Teotihuacan Mask

This piece is made of black obsidian with green obsidian ears and white shell eyes.

History: More masks survive from Teotihuacan (the ancient City of the Gods) than from any other Mesoamerican culture. These are widely believed to be funerary masks placed over the faces of the dead at burial. Crafted from many types of material, these masks display consistent characteristics such as the wide forehead and lapidary art style in which the masks are almost always wider than they are tall. The most famous of these pieces, obsidian inlayed with turquoise and pink coral, is displayed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.