14th-13th century BC. A Mesopotamian glazed composition mask of a youthful female with narrow slot to the brow, petite nose and mouth that appear secondary to the large almond-shaped eyes, socket to the throat, flanged ears with two piercings in each, sockets to the eyes to accept inserts; originally the hollow eyes, arching eyebrows, and grooved neck were all inlaid with chalky-white shell fragments, each component held in place with thin layers of jet-black bitumen. See Marinescu, C.A., Beloved by Time: Four Millennia of Ancient Art., Fortuna Fine Arts, Ltd., New York, 2000, p.10, fig.4; McIntosh, J., Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives, ABC-CLIO, 2005; similar specimen in MET, accession number 32.37.24.7 grams, 50mm (2"). Previously the property of a Bristol collector; formerly part of his father's collection formed between 1960-late 1970s. The second millennium BC witnessed an explosion in the use of faience in the production of wearable jewellery, pendants, and stylised anthropomorphic figures. Scottish archaeologist Jane McIntosh explains that 'pendants in the form of women’s faces, inlaid with bitumen or pieces of coloured faience set in bitumen… were also popular throughout Mesopotamia' (McIntosh,2005, p.254"). Over time, the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia developed religious and spiritual uses for faience, creating abstract anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations of deities and other religious imagery to use for votive offerings and temple decorations.