Neolithic Stone Mask Unearthed

News November 28, 2018

(Israel Antiquities Authority)
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Neolithic stone mask
(Israel Antiquities Authority)

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—According to an AFP report, a rare, 9,000-year-old mask made of pink and yellow sandstone was found in the Pnei Hever region of the West Bank. “The last one that we know was found 35 years ago,” said archaeologist Ronit Lupu of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Stone masks have been linked to the rise of agriculture and an increase in ritual activities, such as ancestor worship, she added. To read about another, much more recent, mask discovered in the area, go to “Mask Metamorphosis.”

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