Death Mask - 44-16-1A | Collections

Object Number:	44-16-1A
Current Location:	China Gallery Currently On Display
Culture:	Chinese
Provenience:	China Shanxi Pingding
Period:	Liao Dynasty
Date Made:	Liao Dynasty
Early Date:	907
Late Date:	1125
Section:	Asian
Materials:	Silver
Credit Line:	Purchased from Mathias Komor, 1944
Other Number	CS-17 - Other Number

Description

Silver death mask. Beaten from heavy sheet of silver. The delicate features of this thin silver death mask were beaten into shape from a heavy sheet of metal. Masks like this were placed over the faces of men and women of the Kitan (Qidan) tribes that formed the Liao empire. The masks were attached to gold, silver, or copper wire shrouds that covered the buried bodies of the Kitan and were buried in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning Province from the mid-10th to early 12th century CE. The eyes are partly closed with heavy eyebrows and a long thin nose. There is a small mouth and long ears, each with a pierced hole in the lobe.

Current & Past Exhibitions:

	Chinese Bronze and Jade (Rotunda Case Exhibit) ( Jul 2001)	View Objects in Exhibition
	Magnificent Objects (06 May 2004 - Mar 2005)	View Objects in Exhibition

Bibliography:

	[Book] Dorling Kindersley Limited. 2014. History of the World in 1,000 Objects. : Page/Fig./Plate: Page 162 Middle row, center; Page 415 Top right	View Objects related to this Bibliographic Reference
	[Article] Steinhardt, Nancy S. 2010. "The Luohan that Came from Afar". Expedition: The Magazine of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. 52 (3): 7-8. : Page/Fig./Plate: Page 415 Top right	View Objects related to this Bibliographic Reference
	[Article] Steinhardt, Nancy S. 2008. "The Chinese Rotunda". Arts of Asia. 38 (5): 83-95.	View Objects related to this Bibliographic Reference
	[Book] Quick, Jennifer. 2004. Magnificent Objects from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.	View Objects related to this Bibliographic Reference