Golden funerary masks and societal change narratives in Ancient Macedonia

Nearly one millennium after the famous examples of Mycenae, golden and gilded silver funerary masks were again used in burials, placed on the faces of individuals of high social rank in the necropoleis of ancient Macedonia. In the past, the discussion on the origin of this burial custom was strongly influenced by the quest for identifying the ethnicity of ancient Macedonians and their relationship to present nation states. After a presentation of the material dataset and the geographical and chronological context, the chapter analyses how golden masks entered the frame of this debate over the ethnic identity of ancient Macedonians and became deeply entangled in national archaeological narratives of societal change or continuity. In the last section, the chapter cross-examines various archaeological and sociocultural contexts, ritual sequences, and iconographic and decorative patterns, and demonstrates that, despite the result of a symbolic and ideological construction, the mask is essential in the process of re-ordering the world in situation of instability during the years of tumultuous societal change shaped by the Macedonians’ expansion.