Golden burial masks are among the most impressive finds of archaic cemeteries in Macedonia. Rare and precious as they were, they were placed in the richest burials of that time.
This particular mask of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is made of gold and was found in the tomb 67 of the Sindos cemetery. This unique tomb was used for the interment of a young woman that died around 510-500 B.C., at the age of 25 years.
The cist grave was composed of six rectangular slabs and was constructed with care to accommodate the prematurely deceased woman and the exquisite objects that accompanied her. Inside the tomb, they placed around her body one silver and ten bronze phialai, a bronze exaleiptron, a bronze lebes, a black figured hydria, four small glass amphoras and the iron models of a chair and a table.
By far the most impressive component of the burial was the quantity and high artistic quality of the gold and silver accessories, as they represent one of most elegant and fine assemblages of Macedonian jewellery. Also the deceased’s clothes received extra treatment as they were decorated with golden bands and sheets. A most striking detail is offered by the gilded silver sheets that once covered her shoes. Various objects were also found deposited outside the tomb and probably represent the remains of funerary rituals performed in her honour.
The burial mask, one of the five that were found at the cemetery of Sindos, was constructed by a thick sheet of gold that was hammered against a wooden model, whereas an additional sheet was used for the nose. The rendering of the facial features (front, ears, chin and lips) is so schematic that it is practically impossible to discern the sex. However, a particular emphasis was placed on the shaping of the eyes. Relief lines form the eyebrows and the eyelids, while a depression denotes the iris. The dead, still with the eyes open, keeps staring. Contrary to other examples, the mask was not found on the dead’s face but placed next to its head. Two holes opened at the mask’s edges indicate that it was sewn onto an organic material.
The gold bearing dead woman of the tomb 67 received meticulous burial treatment and high honours that were evidently equivalent to the high status she enjoyed in the local community of Sindos. In particular, the use of the burial mask, a custom that was restricted to the most prominent archaic burials, male and female alike, emphatically accentuates her identity.
The dispersal of the burial mask is the Macedonia area is chronologically and geographically restricted. It makes its appearance around 560 B.C., it vanishes during the 5th c. B.C. and reappears at late Hellenistic and Roman times, mainly in Syria and Palestine. As yet, its use has been documented in the regions of Bottiaea, Amphaxitis, Lygkos and Lychnos (the area of Ohrid), where golden masks were found in the archaic cemeteries of Archontiko, Sindos, Achlada, Thebenishte and Petilep. The practice of covering the dead’s face with a golden mask was applied in Southern Greece to honour the dead rulers of the Grave Circles at Mycenae. After almost one thousand years, this forgotten Mycenaean funerary custom makes its appearance in Northern Greece and it is used as a par excellence means of marking prominent individuals of both sexes that were members of the ruling class. For what reason is this burial custom adopted? Is it the revival of a past trend or probably a 6th century innovation?
According to a particular point of view, the adoption of a Mycenaean burial mode, such as the funerary mask, suggests an attempt on behalf of the Archaic Macedonian aristocracy to connect to the pre-Doric heroic past of the Argolid, the birth place of the Temenid family from which, according to the Herodotean myth, the Macedonian kings descended.
Revival or not of the heroic past of the Macedons, it should be stressed that the emerging rulers and kings of the Archaic period had opted the funerary domain in order to display their social, political and economic excellence.
Coming back to the dead woman in the tomb 67 of Sindos, who was apparently a prominent member of the local aristocracy or descendant of a royal family, it is interesting to investigate the conditions of her death. At around 510-500 B.C. the sudden death of the young woman occurs. As it turns out, it was violently inflicted by a knife stab that left a wound on the upper part of her stern. Although the reasons leading to her violent and unexpected death remain obscure, they seem to have affected her family as to treat her with greater care and to offer her the ultimate burial honours her status and genealogical descent required.
You may see the mask at the permanent exhibition The Gold of the Macedon, in the showcase 67.
