Why are artifacts like this mask from cultures like the Olmec important?

The Olmec masks are important because it displays charicteristics unique to Olmec art. Masks are important to the Mesoamerican culture, and other cultures of art that have adopted their ideas.

This mask was probably worn around the neck as a pendant and may have given the wearer a new identity, perhaps that of an ancestor or a god. It was made by the Olmecs, the earliest known settled civilization of Central America.