| Object Name: | Huehueteotl, Old God of Fire |
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| Creation Date: | 1325-1521 A. D. | |
| Culture: | Aztec, Post-Classic | |
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| Huehueteotl was the Old God of Fire of the Aztecs, and indeed he was of great antiquity, with a standardized representation continuing with little change from the Middle Formative times on. A simple version of a Huehueteotl incense burner has recently been found in a Middle Formative context in Tlaxcala. Unlike most other gods of Mesoamerica, Huehueteotl seems to have been primarily a household deity, and as the fundamental god of the hearth, his images usually turn up in residential quarters rather than in temple precincts. In his standard representation as a stone sculpture, Huehueteotl is a seated figure with legs crossed in front of him, with both hands crossed in front of him and resting on his knees. His right hand is palm up and his left is clenched as if it once held a banner. He hunches over, with the curved spine of age, and his face is usually heavily wrinkled. Humans are not commonly shown to age in Mesoamerica art and very few gods are depicted as aged either. Although rarely toothless, Huehueteotl is often reduced to only two lower teeth. On his head he usually wears a huge brazier, its rim marked with rhomboid lozenges, symbolic of fire at Teotihuacan. The brazier itself may have held smoldering coals or incense. A few ceramic examples are known and the most notable is the Early Classic Huehueteotl from Cerro de las Mesas. An Aztec example conflates Tlaloc, the Rain God, with Huehueteotl, perhaps in representation of the Aztec metaphor for war and conflagration. | ||
