The fourfold and fivefold image of the Mesoamerican cosmos constitutes one of the most important iconographic frameworks and remains influential among Indigenous peoples because of its association with the flow of time and the alternance of meteorological, human, and vegetal cycles. The tepetlacalli, or “stone box,” discovered in the Tizapán region, south of the Basin of Mexico, provides archaeological evidence of the relationship between cosmic order and the elements that sustain life, including water, meteorological phenomena, and the forces of fertility.
Tepetlacalli were ritual stone boxes used by ancient Mexicans to deposit offerings associated with Tláloc, the rain deity. Several discoveries at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlán indicate that these chests contained ceramics, greenstones, animal remains, and other elements associated with the god and his realm, Tlalocan. For this reason, stone boxes have been interpreted as metaphors for the great storehouse that preserves agricultural wealth: the sacred mountain. Ancient myths from the Central Highlands describe how the Tlaloques, lesser water gods, stored seeds and the forces of fertility (clouds, rain, and the hearts of seeds) in boxes concealed within caves and mountains. This concept remains current in some Huasteca rituals, where ritual specialists cut paper representations of the “spirits of the seeds,” which they safeguard in boxes; each year, the seeds are removed and revitalized through offerings and changes of clothing.
The tepetlacalli of Tizapán belongs to this iconographic and symbolic tradition associated with Tlalocan. The underside of its lid depicts four Tlaloques, each painted a different color and positioned according to the four cardinal points. In this cosmogram, the water deities function as cosmic pillars and therefore regulate the passage of time throughout the year. This fourfold image of Tláloc is reflected both in the names assigned to each cosmic path and in his role as distributor of the four types of rain. The presence of the Tlaloques on these stone boxes reinforces the idea that rain was not simply a natural phenomenon but the result of divine wills that could be invoked and propitiated through the oneness of Tláloc, projected from each extremity of the universe.