Hillside mask may have been embedded in '70s
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

HIPPIE HOLDOVER- The mysterious mask on an Agoura hillside was probably made from a mold and placed on the hill in the last 40 years or so according to Robert Lopez, an expert in Chumash Indian culture.

A carved stone mask embedded in a hill below the 14-foot statue of an Indian atop Agoura Road in Agoura Hills is probably nothing more than a mold, a local expert concluded.

Robert Lopez, a board member of the Oakbrook Park Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks and a retired professor of archaeology at Moorpark College, examined a picture of the mask. He said the image looks more like a casting from a mold than a carving by Chumash Indians.

"It is not Chumash," Lopez said. "They did not do this type of carving. The type of carving they did is mostly 'pecking,' which in archaeology is referred to as petroglyphs," he said. "They mostly painted on rocks."

Lopez said the face looked very "European," not like artwork created by native artists.

The surface of the mask may actually be concrete, Lopez said. If the mask is concrete it may have been created in a mold, then embedded in the mountain for the appearance of ancient art.

"The Chumash would never do that kind of work," Lopez said. "The facial features and surrounding areas just didn't match."

Even encroaching plant life tells a story. Although Lopez said the "lichen looks like it has been there awhile," he doesn't believe the growth attached to the rock dates back hundreds of years to the early days of the Chumash.

"During the 1970s, the hippie era, people lived all over the hills and did all sorts of art," Lopez said.

The mask on the hill is among many interesting features found on or near an Agoura Hills property that is listed for sale at nearly $1.3 million. The property, owned by Scott and Donna Sava, includes the statue of Chief White Eagle by Count Jean de Strelecki, a Polish immigrant artist.

The statue was created in the early 1940s as a tribute to the Chumash who settled the land, although the artist mistakenly fashioned the statue after Seminole Indians when he heard about the nearby Seminole Springs area.

It is not known when the property's caves or the mask were first discovered. Scott Sava explored the area when he purchased the home in 2003 and asked Agoura Hills officials for more information, but they were unable to provide answers.

The city maintains an easement to the property, as the statue of Chief White Eagle is an integral part of Agoura Hills' history.