Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The World's Oldest Mask

While browsing Reddit, I came across this image of the oldest surviving mask.

It is made of stone, from the modern-day Palestinian territories in Israel & dates to 7000 BCE, making it 9,000 years old!

Musée de la bible et Terre Sainte 

It is an simplified, archetypical human face, whose generic appearance would make it seem familiar to people in any time period.

Is it any wonder that this ancient mask also resembles the "happy face" ☺, probably the most used emoticon in today's digital communications?

On a side note, I definitely think that this should be the mask of choice for political & civic protests from now on.

Besides being an expression of what the late Terence McKenna called "The Archaic Revival", it is a perfectly creepy & uniform visage for protesters to hide their faces.

People should start wearing these en masse- instead of the Guy Fawkes mask from "V for Vendetta", which is owned by corporate giant Time Warner. Instead of ironically paying a faceless corporation for protest masks, individuals should print out or make their own 3D versions of this neolithic mask.

It would represent a conscious return to basic human values & those timeless qualities that we all want to uphold:

Creative freedom, artistic expression, the right to some degree of privacy, the ability to explore our multifaceted identities, & the simple pleasure of personal happiness.


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