Face Off | Face Off. Understanding Ancient Masks

Summary
“Face Off” is designed as an interdisciplinary project, whose main goal is the first comprehensive investigation and comparison of masking phenomena in the Iron Age Mediterranean (c. 12th-2nd centuries BC), aiming to explain why humans need masks and understand the connection between masks and ancient societies. Apart from focusing on the examination of the Aegean, Cypriot and Phoenician/Punic corpora of masks, this project will use scientific methods (i.e. 3D modelling, pXRF, Face Expression Recognition; Machine Learning) to investigate the transmission of mask models and the impact of ancient masks on the spectators, and to understand the age and gender of the characters represented in these faces, of the persons wearing the masks and of those attending the masked activities. A project on this chronological and geographical coverage and based on such multidisciplinary methodology is unprecedented. Investigating this complexity will provide insights into the role that masks played in some Iron Age communities across the Mediterranean basin. This project is designed to take place at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which has the expertise, facilities and resources necessary to support such research. By viewing the ancient masks of the Iron Age Mediterranean through the lens of various disciplines and scientific methods, the proposed project entails a significant component of an exchange of knowledge, together with training through research. With its dissemination (seminar, publications) and public engagement activities (articles, lectures, exhibition), this project constitutes an innovative way of doing archaeology and intends to bring together different traditions within the European schools of Mediterranean archaeology.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101028591
Start date: 01-09-2022
End date: 31-08-2024
Total budget - Public funding: 160 932,48 Euro - 160 932,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

“Face Off” is designed as an interdisciplinary project, whose main goal is the first comprehensive investigation and comparison of masking phenomena in the Iron Age Mediterranean (c. 12th-2nd centuries BC), aiming to explain why humans need masks and understand the connection between masks and ancient societies. Apart from focusing on the examination of the Aegean, Cypriot and Phoenician/Punic corpora of masks, this project will use scientific methods (i.e. 3D modelling, pXRF, Face Expression Recognition; Machine Learning) to investigate the transmission of mask models and the impact of ancient masks on the spectators, and to understand the age and gender of the characters represented in these faces, of the persons wearing the masks and of those attending the masked activities. A project on this chronological and geographical coverage and based on such multidisciplinary methodology is unprecedented. Investigating this complexity will provide insights into the role that masks played in some Iron Age communities across the Mediterranean basin. This project is designed to take place at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which has the expertise, facilities and resources necessary to support such research. By viewing the ancient masks of the Iron Age Mediterranean through the lens of various disciplines and scientific methods, the proposed project entails a significant component of an exchange of knowledge, together with training through research. With its dissemination (seminar, publications) and public engagement activities (articles, lectures, exhibition), this project constitutes an innovative way of doing archaeology and intends to bring together different traditions within the European schools of Mediterranean archaeology.

Status

TERMINATED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2020

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
MSCA-IF-2020 Individual Fellowships