Death Mask

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.