The Denver Art Museum, Purchase with Funds Provided by Walt Disney Imagineering and Harry 1. and Edythe Smookler Memorial, 1990.0070
The subject of a hunched-over old man supporting a round vessel on his head may be very ancient in Mesoamerica and is not unique to Teotihuacan. It was especially common in small clay forms. It is generally believed that the hrazier was used to burn incense and that this object is in some way associated with the hearth and household ritual.
Although clay versions were also known at Teotihuacan, after A. D. 250 when the apartment compounds were huilt stone braziers seem to have been mass produced. WTien found in archaeological excavations, they have sometimes been located in the central courtyards or near the central shrines of the apartment compounds. They range in size from small to life-sized and fragments exist of what may have been a colossal one. The same format is always followed: the cross-legged, seated figure creates a triangular base. The actual sculpture is openwork. The back of the figure and the head bend forward to support the vessel, but there is nothing solid in the center, These modest household sculirtures were thus remarkably conceived as skeletal supports around an open space.
I. iuk - in ilu’ i(onogniphv can be explained liilK. Tlic oldness of die figure is indicaied by wrinkles on tbe face and soincdmcs by two tcedi proiniding in the corners of tbe momh. Tbe figure wears no dress, exceiit for earsjiools.
The intentionaliiy of nakedness is soine-tiines clear on the backs, which show shoulder blades, ribs, and bullocks.
Kach of the hands is in a different position. perhaps indicating they sened as distinct ritual objects or in clifTereni ritual actions. Sniall asyninietrics within an oierall syniincirical design are characteristic of Tcoiihiiacan ritual an. Tbe rim ol tbe vessel is iisiiallv carved with vertical bars alternating with rhomboid eyes. These eyes are believed to be symbols of fire because ihev occur on these incense-burning bra/iers.
The 1 eotilniacan Old Ood is similar to old gods found in the Templo. Mayor on'erings of the./iecs, but it is not clear if he is a deity. Since he holds the ritual cssel on his bead, he could be consiilered a “supporter" rather than a deity. Oldness can also be associated with the concept of ancestors. It is not liossible at this iioint to select which of these meanings is absohiielv correct. F. P
World History
