Bronze Animal Mask, List#13

Narrator

This mask has exaggerated eyes similar to the other masks in the pits, but it also has horns and ears on top of the head and a stylized body. It looks similar, but not exactly the same, to masks discovered in the Central Plain, the area where Chinese culture was first thought to have formed. There it's called a "taotie".

Writings from centuries later tell the story of the taotie.

Suzanne Cahill

It's a monster that tries to eat the moon. And then gets turned into a monster that protects the people. So we think this may serve a similar purpose; that is, it may be something that protects the user or the ceremony that it's used in.
Narrator

This one mask, however, is simply not enough to connect the Sanxingdui culture directly with the rituals of the Central Plain.
Does the mask seem similar to art from any other ancient civilization? Suzanne Cahill
One of the associations that people often make is that they look like Mayan masks and Mayan designs. And this is one of those intriguing and sort of captivating associations that people have looked into for years. And some professors of mine have told me that it's one of those links that you make, because they look so similar. But if you study it, it will just make you crazy because you cannot find any evidence that links them together, in any direct or indirect way.