Elongated Mask Ornament (c. 900–300 BCE): Art, History and Details

Elongated Mask Ornament (c. 900–300 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Small masks made of precious media-especially greenstone, which Mesoamerican people valued above most other materials-likely served as elements of Olmec elite regalia. Such masks commonly depict human faces, although it is unclear whether the creature shown on this unusual example is human or supernatural. It may be a late work.

Object facts

• Title: Elongated Mask Ornament
• Date: c. 900–300 BCE
• Culture: Mesoamerica, Mexico, Olmec
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: greenstone
• Dimensions: Overall: 13.8 cm (5 7/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Mesoamerica
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1967.154

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James B. Wadhams in memory of Miss Helen Humphreys

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Year in Review.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 10 (December 1967): 302–346.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.