Terracotta masks are one of the best known products of Phoenician and Punic art. Representations of the masks In the western Mediterranean during the Punic Era are rather similar, due to the Carthage influence.

Female “Egyptian-style” masks are the most common, that can be dated to the end of the 6th century B.C. and throughout the 5th century, and are often found in necropolises.

The so-called "Tanit Gouin", named after the 19th century collector who came into possession of it, probably comes from the southern Tharros necropolis and is one of the most famous and best-preserved examples of this art (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - Female mask in terracotta known as the “Tanit Gouin” (Archaeological Superintendency Archive)

This represents the face of a woman, whose head is covered with a headscarf decorated with shells in concentric circles; her ears are shown flattened to the sides of her face, with large almond-shaped eyes and a large, ancient-style, smiling mouth.

The terracotta mask is hollow and unfinished at the back, and has a hole for hanging it on the top of the head.

A large number of female masks came from Tharros, probably from the necropolises, that show different details (fig. 2) than the one shown here, and became increasingly outlined as time went on (fig. 3).

Fig. 2 - Female mask from Tharros, with head cloth that descends over the neck in folds (from CIASCA 1988, p. 363)

Fig. 3 - Female mask from Tharros, with outlined lines and details (Oristano, Antiquarium Arborense) (photo by Unicity S.p.A.)

As already said, these masks were mainly found in tombs, and the excavation of a chamber tomb in Sulci (Sant’Antioco) dated between the end of the 6th and the start of the 5th century B.C. brought about the identification of where these masks were positioned in burials, i.e. Placed above the wooden coffin containing the body (fig. 4).

Fig. 4 - Female Mask from the tomb 12 AR in Sulci, from the end of the VI-beginning of the 5th century B.C. (from TRONCHETTI 1997a, p. 114)