This remarkable Olmec pendant is comparable in design to a half-faced mask produced hundreds of years later by the Indians of North America (Figure 2). Just as we see in the Olmec mask, a Kwakiutl mask is half-faced and carved in a full frontal presentation that is split in half (Figure 2a). A second example of a half faced mask comes to us from the Yupik Indians (Figure 2b). Although the mask is cut in half, the frontal view of the face features a full mouth, on the right side.  The presence of these two North American Indian masks further emphasizes the common iconographic motifs shared by the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

   Half faced images were also produced throughout South America. Half faced portraits such as the one seen on a painted Chavin textile (Figure 3) is a prevalent motif found in the artworks of the Peruvian Indians. Notice the partial nose and grinning mouth with large saber tooth fangs.

   Besides masks and textiles examples of half faced portraits were also executed in the form of gigantic earthworks. Just to the north of the city of Lima, in the Supe Valley of Peru are the expansive ruins of Caral. Just beyond this ancient complex of mounds and partially buried pyramids is an immense half-faced geoglyph formed into the surface of this once sacred ground (Figure 4).

   Notice the D-shaped head with its large gaping mouth and raked hair. It should be noted that this partial face is not carved in profile but is intentionally designed in a “cut in half” manner and like the two-faced geoglyphs found on Mars, the Caral halved face is also meant to be seen from high above the ground.

Footnote

1.  Michael D. Coe and David Grove, The Olmec & Their Neighbors; Essays in Memory of Matthew W. Stirling, (Washington, D. C. Dumbarton Oaks, 1981), 318.