This mask probably came from the City of the Dead, a desert burial ground created by the
Paracas people and discovered by archaeologist Julio Tello in 1925.
The Paracas lived on Peru's South Coast between 900 B.C. and 600 B.C. Most of what we know about them was learned at the City of the Dead.
Tello found over 400 mummy bundles at this site. The mask may have been wrapped up in one of those bundles.
We know this because the cloth wrappings left marks on the mask's surface.
The bundles Tello found also contained food, gold ornaments, and other fine objects.
People buried this
way were probably wealthy leaders of the community.
