This terra cotta Carthaginian mask is too small to be worn by an adult, it is about four inches from chin to top of forehead. The mask is thought to date from the 5th Century BC. Nobody knows the purpose of these masks, informed speculation includes that they may have been placed in tombs to ward of evil spirits, they may have been placed on infants being sacrificed, or they may be smaller copies of larger masks made for adult wear during rituals. Alas, I can think of very good reasons all three of the above could be wrong! Like so much else about Carthage, we just don't know. The mask is interesting, though! This one is in the Bardo Museum in Tunis, they had a couple of extremely grotesque masks, but the lighting on those is going to require some Photoshop work I don't have the computer to do at the moment (I'm using a laptop till my main computer is fixed).
17-55 IS lens and 40D
31mm + 1.6 crop
ISO 3200
1/30th second @ f/8
ambient artificial light
hand held
slight crop
