Behind the Mask: Early Neolithic miniature masks (and one larger-than-life example) from Göbekli Tepe (and beyond)

Today people wear masks to hide their identity but also to impersonate another real or imaginary being. All Neolithic cultures in the Near East made masks. Why? What were the rituals and ideas behind the masks? In the corpus of Neolithic stone masks, those from the Judean Hills and Desert are among the most well-known. Weighing up to 2 kilograms, these masks strike the modern observer with their almost expressionistic facial features – each is individual, as if depicting specific human beings. Some have holes around the rim, probably to allow them to be attached to something, or to even be worn.