Ancient object
Gold funerary mask from Grave Circle A, Mycenae
Beaten gold funerary mask
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Object provenance
Record checked- Object
- Beaten gold funerary mask
- Material
- Gold sheet
- Made
- Evidence level: Probablec. 1550–1500 BCE
- Found
- Evidence level: DocumentedShaft Grave V, Grave Circle A, Mycenae
- Excavated
- 1876 · Heinrich Schliemann
- Inventory
- Not recorded in this catalogue
- Identification
- Evidence level: UnknownAn unidentified elite burial
'The Mask of Agamemnon' is Schliemann's label and is not an identification. The mask predates any traditional date of the Trojan War by centuries and nothing connects it to any named person. A separate and more serious question has been raised about whether parts of the face were modified after excavation; the suggestion is contested and is not accepted by most specialists.
Condition — Complete, with repoussé features.
Read across
How to read the evidence labels
- Evidence level: Documented
- Supported by a named primary text or by excavated material evidence.
- Evidence level: Probable
- Supported by strong inference that most specialists accept.
- Evidence level: Disputed
- Substantial specialist disagreement exists; competing readings are stated.
- Evidence level: Literary
- Belongs to poetic or mythological construction rather than to history.
- Evidence level: Mythological
- Belongs to shared religious or mythic tradition rather than to any single text.
- Evidence level: Unknown
- The available evidence is insufficient to decide.
These labels describe the status of the evidence, not our confidence in a conclusion. A claim marked Literary is not a claim we doubt; it is a claim about what kind of thing a poem is.