Bronze Human Head With Gold Mask, List#8

Narrator

Numerous heads of various sizes were found at the two sites. A few looked like this one, with a gold mask layered over a bronze head. The bronze has oxidized over time, creating a striking color contrast with the gold. But nearly three thousand years ago, the bronze would have been polished to a high gleam.

Suzanne Cahill

The gold is much, much lighter than the bronze. So it still would have looked as though it was a two-tone face. It could represent a mask that the person is wearing, or it also could just be a way of showing that this person is quite extraordinary, maybe indicating that their face is shining; that they're a deity.

Narrator

Another clue to how the heads may have been used is that most of them have a triangular neckline.

Suzanne Cahill

One of the suggestions about these figures has been that they were mounted on some kind of wooden bodies, and then there was some kind of robes put over them. And then this neck would be what you could see above the robe.

Narrator

These heads might have been dressed in clothes similar to the full-sized figure you saw at the beginning of the exhibition. [SFX]

Now, walk to the back of the head on display.

What appears to be hair is worked into the bronze on many of the heads. You might assume it to be the traditional Chinese braid of hair known as a queue. However, this is a common misconception.

Suzanne Cahill

For Westerners, that queue becomes a symbol of Chinese culture. But it really is recent, from when the Manchus took over in 1644 [CE], compared to this, which is 1200 [BCE].

Narrator

So what is this similar hairstyle doing here, thousands of years before it makes its next appearance in Chinese culture? Like so much else here, it remains a mystery.