Face Off · Face Off. Understanding Ancient Masks

“Face Off” is designed as an interdisciplinary project, whose main goal is the first comprehensive investigation and comparison of masking phenomena in the Iron Age Mediterranean (c. 12th-2nd centuries BC), aiming to explain why humans need masks and understand the connection between masks and ancient societies. Apart from focusing on the examination of the Aegean, Cypriot and Phoenician/Punic corpora of masks, this project will use scientific methods (i.e. 3D modelling, pXRF, Face Expression Recognition; Machine Learning) to investigate the transmission of mask models and the impact of ancient masks on the spectators, and to understand the age and gender of the characters represented in these faces, of the persons wearing the masks and of those attending the masked activities. A project on this chronological and geographical coverage and based on such multidisciplinary methodology is unprecedented. Investigating this complexity will provide insights into the role that masks played in some Iron Age communities across the Mediterranean basin. This project is designed to take place at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which has the expertise, facilities and resources necessary to support such research. By viewing the ancient masks of the Iron Age Mediterranean through the lens of various disciplines and scientific methods, the proposed project entails a significant component of an exchange of knowledge, together with training through research. With its dissemination (seminar, publications) and public engagement activities (articles, lectures, exhibition), this project constitutes an innovative way of doing archaeology and intends to bring together different traditions within the European schools of Mediterranean archaeology.