Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Ptolemais on the Mediterranean coast of Libya recently stumbled upon a Roman-era villa adorned with a terrifying cast of a human face that appears to be trying to break free.
Republic of PolandA plaster cast of the face was found during excavations of an ancient house, which archaeologists called the “House of Levaktios”, discovered in 2001.
According to Science in Poland, archaeologists from the University of Warsaw recently returned to Libya after a 13-year absence. During excavations in the summer of 2024, the Polish Archaeological Mission in Ptolemais made a number of fascinating discoveries, including a “mysterious” plaster cast of a human face found among the ruins of an ancient house.
This “astonishing find”, cast from hydraulic plaster, was discovered on the wall of a cistern. Although it clearly depicts a human face, it has few other distinguishing features, making it a mystery to archaeologists.
“We are not sure whether the mask was intended for an apotropaic function, or whether its creation was a decision by the owner who wanted to magically protect his valuable supplies of drinking water, or whether it was some kind of master's signature left by the plasterers,” Piotr Jaworski, the head of the archaeological team, explained in an email to All That's Interesting.
However, the Polish Archaeological Mission in Ptolemais suggests that it may indicate that the house where it was discovered once belonged to local residents, rather than the conquerors who ruled the region for centuries.
“The face found in the cistern bears some resemblance to human faces carved into the walls of the Libyan sanctuary at Slonte, south of Cyrene. It cannot be completely ruled out that the owner of the house – or at least those who participated in the creation of this image – were Libyans by origin,” added Yavorsky. “Epigraphic sources indicate that, beginning in the 1st century BC, members of the Libyan elite, who quickly assimilated, received citizenship in the Greek cities of Cyrenaica. However, this remains only a hypothesis, and research into this enigmatic image is only just beginning.”
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