In the figurative art of abstract settlements of the Mezcala lapidary art, faces abound, only some of which could be considered as masks.  In a strict and limited sense, this implies objects of diverse appearance and significance, designed to cover a human face, for which they have holes to strings and tie it to the wearer. They also typically have a concave back surface and openings in the eye, mouth, and nose area for seeing, speaking, and breathing.  However, with respect to the Mezcala culture and in general for Mesoamerican cultures, there are unknowns about the practical use of pieces with these characteristics made with stone materials, such as the one we are discussing now.

         It is known that its performance could have been different from covering the faces of individuals who thus hid their identity or acquired another, perhaps more regal and powerful than the natural one, in religious ceremonies or playful acts. Some masks fulfilled burial purposes: they were placed on the corpse, skeleton or a burial bundle. Others covered sculptural images, were used as part of incense burners and as free-standing objects or jewelry, served as offerings in buildings and grave goods for buried individuals. 

         It is necessary to emphasize that those that are preserved are made of non-perishable materials, such as stone or baked clay, so leaving aside those of a mortuary nature, I think that these masks could be their representations, with a votive sense, like the stone sculptures of the so-called yokes, axes and palms that were part of the attire of the ball players in the cultures of the Classic period in central Veracruz.

         The small mask that we see, barely 11 cm high, has four perforations suitable for attaching it to a , and apparently the back is concave.  The ears protrude from the oval outline. The eyebrows, lips and chin are represented by means of embossing while two grooves make up the triangular nose. The cylindrical holes and those for the eyes and mouth could have been made with flint burins. The uniform black tone of the polished surface is notable, since that color scheme is not representative of the lapidary of Mezcala.  It is worth exploring some symbolism of the color black in Mesoamerican religiosity. 

        The absence of light, obscurity or darkness are associated with the primordial, subterranean and aquatic level of the cosmos, which, in a process of inversion, is analogous to the nocturnal celestial vault. From this conceptualization, the black coloration is impregnated with supernatural values. 

         In the Mexica pantheon, some gods had their bodies painted in that color scheme, such as Ixtlilton, Nepatecutli, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc and Tecaztlipoca.  Regarding the worship of the latter, Guilhem Olivier associates the act of covering one's body with soot or black paint as a penance to revere and establish with the god.   The soot or carbon was a dye taken from the residues of the combustion of wood. Daniele Dehouve identifies carbon black among the attributes of Tlaloc, not only because of its appearance but also because of its very production, since it evoked the smoke of fire, but also the mist and clouds whose creation was typical of Tlaloc, as an aquatic deity. 

         Although the Mezcala cultural sphere is earlier and has a different ethnic and linguistic identity, from the unifying beginning of Mesoamerican history and worldview, collectively constructed throughout its millenary temporality, we can assume a ritual use of the black anthropomorphic mask. That is, the person wearing it would be transformed into some sacred entity, in their ixiptla or personifier, and that the black face would be one of their main attributes and vehicles of agency. 

Veronica Hernandez Diaz