prev - home - index - next

This small-scale model pyramid temple is so finely detailed as to include the complete iconographic program that identifies it as a temple dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, to wit: the beaded panels (which would have been painted red) with protruding human skulls, and the sectioned-shell merlons that line the upper edge of the temple's roof. Temples to Huitzilopochtli usually were part of a two-temple complex, the northern half of which would have been dedicated to Tlaloc, the rain deity, and identified by a series of broad parallel black and white lines.