Although incensarios take many forms, effigy incense burners represent an especially intriguing aspect of ritual incense burning. Whereas more basic incensarios comprised small cups, bowls, and vases, effigy incense burners were created as physical manifestations of saints, deities, or other important figures, such as ancestors (Cecil and Pugh, 2018).

The effigy incensario pictured here was found at the city of Kaminaljuyú (located near to modern-day Guatemala City, Guatemala) and is believed to have been constructed between 200 and 500 C.E., during the Early Classic Period. The seated figure is split into upper and lower halves, and cutouts for smoke to be released can be seen in the eyes, mouth, and on top of the head of the figure. Although the identity of the person depicted is a mystery, they are heavily outfitted in intricately-carved jade jewelry, including ear spools, a necklace and pendant, and a floral headdress. The abundance of jade jewelry suggests that this ceramic piece was created after the likeness of an important ruler or deity.

Image retrieved from: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/incensario-from-kaminaljuyu-2d7c6ee5446d4a219a4a80148512ccfb 

Bloodletting was central to Maya religious practices beginning during the Late Preclassic period (roughly 400 B.C.E. to 250 C.E.) and beyond. In addition to other forms of religious offering-- such as ritual sacrifice, heart removal, and decapitation-- bloodletting was a prominent part of rulership and public rituals alike; dedication of life and blood to supernatural beings was used to ensure cosmic order, success in battle, rain for growing crops, and to dedicate architectural constructions (Munson et al., 2014; Stemp, 2016). During bloodletting rituals, the Maya cut and pierced their bodies, particularly the cheeks, lips, tongue, ears, arms, legs, and penis; this was achieved using a variety of objects such as bone shards, thorns, blades of obsidian or flint, and stingray spines (Munson et al., 2014; Stemp, 2016). For Maya rulers, bloodletting was also viewed as a divine duty; shedding blood followed examples found in the Maya creation story, the Popol Vuh, which reinforced the celestial likeness of Maya rulers and the supernatural deities.

Image retrieved from: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1923-Maud-4

 

When Maya kings dressed as gods and spiritual beings during ritual performances, they assumed the Identities of these supernatural beings and were believed to even wield divine powers (Johnson, 35). The Maya believed that some deities, such as the Maize God, played a critical role during the creation of the cosmos. Kings defended their political sovereignty through these creation stories, such as the Popol Vuh, and religion would become the source political power. 

We can see archaeological evidence for the relationship between Maya kings and the Maize God through numerous stelae found around the Maya area. One Example in this exhibit is the Copan Stela H. This stela dates back to the Late Classic Period and was discovered at the Copan Maya Ruin, located in Wester Honduras. This Maya site lays in the Copan Valley and functioned as the political, civil, and religious center of the area. This Stela depicts the Maya King, Waxaklahun Ubah K'awil, and describes him as having a relatively long and productive reign, however, little of him is known simply because his texts say so little of historical value. Most likely, his reign had little issues and the region prospered during his time, but nothing particularly noteworthy took place (Peabody Museum). The Stela depicts Waxaklahun Ubah K'awi as the Maize God. 

Image from: 
Heyworth, Robin. "The Stelae of Copán - An Evolution of Art & Religion." 20 Oct. 2016. Web. 20 Nov. 2020.

These two images however, come from a common person’s household burial dating back to the Late Classic Period, and were excavated in Tikal.

Images from:
A. Haviland, .William"Prehistoric Settlement at Tikal, Guatemala" Expedition Magazine 7.3 (1965): n. pag. Expedition Magazine. Penn Museum, 1965 Web. 21 Nov 2020 <http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=990>

Image from: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/vasija-efigie-unknown/iQEoL6VALCkDyQ

The ceramic free standing censer from Palenque depicts the head of the jaguar god of the underworld, and the bottom head decipicts a maize god head. The censor tubular shape represents a symbolic movement through the cosmos. Within ancient Maya ideologies exists the cosmovision, which refers to a worldview of forces and stories associated with ancestors who created and in which the possibility for renewal and maintenance depends on. “The Mesoamerican worldviews included a strong sense of parallelism between the celestial, supernatural forces of the cosmos, macrocosmos, and the biological, animal, social, and human patterns of life on earth microcosmos”(Carrasco, 2014, p. 15) The ceramic censer is from Palenque, an important ancient Maya city state. Censers were often used as an important element in ceremonial life and ritual paraphernalia, also used to regard great respect and represent divine beings. In other words, ceramic censers were vital objects that connected communities to beings. “The makeup of Mesoamerican nonhumans does not fit our Western concepts of gods, deities, demons, and ghosts existing in other worlds or dimensions, passing through supernatural portals into the natural world”(Astro-Aguilera, 2009, p. 175). Even though the act of worshiping requires respect, Maya respectful veneration cannot be correctly labeled as worship that meets Western definitions. The Maya worldview involved not only constant communication with ancestral beings, but a specific view of the living and the concept of death that is very different from Western views. In fact “evidence that an individual’s life continued is found in Maya monumental art, in burials, and in the K’iche’ Mayan Popol Vuh . Death was no bar to the continuity of Classic Maya personhood. There is an abundance of Mesoamerican non humans interacting with humans”(Astro-Aguilera, 2009, p.162). Communicating objects, like ceramic censers, were not necessarily worshipped for representing a god, but rather represented an existing relationship of communication between beings.

Images from: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/censer-stand-with-the-head-of-the-jaguar-god-of-the-underworld-precolumbian/pwEk0gt2jcQ6bA

The stone head of the maize god is depicted as a beautiful young man with closed eyes and his long hair is similar to those of maize leaves. The importance of maize in Mesoamerica can simply not be overlooked, maize connects in various ways to the ancient worldview of the Maya and creation stories. “The earliest ruling institutions incorporated themes of cosmological order; sun, water, and maize deities; the agricultural cycle; and ancestor veneration”(Estrada-Belli, 2006, p. 57). The significance of the maize god is even more clearly represented through its connections to rulership, rulers were often portrayed evoking the maize god. In fact rulers in maize god costumes were “one of the most commonly impersonated beings in Classic Maya dance, with the sumptuous costumes of quetzal plumes and jade alluding to the verdant growth of the maize plant" (Taube 2001a: 306). Meaning that beliefs emphasized not only maize as an essential resource and the need of ceremonial practices to ensure successful cultivation, but successful communication to gods and supernatural beings. The reciprocal veneration of beings like the maize god can be used to examine the meaning of ancient artifacts associated with agricultural rituals. Therefore, the maize god artifacts were ritual objects that the Maya may have considered to be “live” objects. The significance of communicating objects can also be analyzed during a practice that was known as activation, where Maya priests would engage in “summoning and tethering particular non-corpororal beings into specific objects''(Astro-Aguilera, 2009, p. 173). Non-human entities, categorized as gods, were seen as pre-contact Maya ancestral beings who communicated with the living. 

Image from:  
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/head-of-maize-god-unknown/pAHvPWe428-8ww

Image from: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/olmec-stone-mask/uQFBUViHc0FK2Q 

Dedicatory caches were typically placed in a newly constructed building to confer sanctity to the structure; these often included whole, intact items and vessels such as vases. In contrast, terminal caches were placed to mark the abandonment or destruction of a structure; these offerings consisted of smashing or burning ritual objects and scattering the resulting pieces at the site. This process is believed to be representative of a cyclical process of life, death, decay, and rebirth (Kunen et al., 2002).

The current example reflects a dedicatory cache discovered under a residential structure at the Maya site of La Caldera (in northwestern Belize). The whole bone and shell objects pictured were discovered in a pit that had been carved into the bedrock foundation of a Late/Terminal Classic home (constructed between 750 and 850 C.E.). Along with other items not pictured, the bone needles, beads, and shell ornaments were arranged in a formation that invoked the four directions of the natural world, according to the Maya. The bedrock pit was also oriented in a manner that referenced the north and east, the first directions to be marked with tree growth in some versions of the Maya creation story (Kunen et al., 2002).

Image retrieved from: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/article/abs/pits-and-bones-identifying-maya-ritual-behavior-in-the-archaeological-record/6C407EF68CB6985B99DA721CAA7E76B7 (requires academic login)

It is a jade ornament that is elegantly decorated. It was originally part of a royal costume that consisted of three of these ornaments. Jade is related to rulership, wealth, maize, and embodies the Maya conception of wind and the breath soul (Taube, 2005). One of the sides is the portrait of a Maya ruler who is dressed in a costume that would be worn during inauguration. The dark spots that can be seen on his face represent Hunahpu, one of the Hero Twins from the Popol Vuh. He is depicted wearing a jaguar skin shirt with a royal belt. There is a mask that references death as well. Chac the rain god is within this image as well, signifying part of the maize cycle of life which requires the rains to sprout and grow. The royals would likely be wearing this kind of garb during their  elaborate dances. The figure's headgear also incorporates a skull, jade beads, and a jester god mask. The jester god represents the avian aspect composed of the head of the Principal Bird deity (Taube, 2009). This is an example of how elaborate the costumes may get during the dancing rituals that the Maya elite would partake in. It is important to understand that it was a dance that only the elite would be able to partake in as they were seen as beings that were bestowed with that privilege. This privilege was bestowed by Hunahpu the original Maize god and they were following in his footsteps. 

Image from: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/royal-belt-ornament/GwGw5_aN6gCUNA

The stela pictured (Structure 601, Stela 4) has been placed on its side and incorporated into a lower-terrace wall, an obvious example of repurposed building materials that defines the spolia method or architecture. The carving depicts a lone individual wearing a large headdress and feathered ornament, but further details have been lost to weathering. Shockingly, roughly 60% of the temples’ facing (outer surfaces) at Zacpeten are composed of stone that was reclaimed from Preclassic and Classic structures (Cecil and Pugh, 2018). Some geographic variation is also present in the methods used to repurpose older building materials: in Zacpeten and Topoxte (both part of the Kowoj region), monuments were placed in walls, as pictured; in Tayasal (belonging the Itza region), they were placed upright and used as standing stelae (Cecil and Pugh, 2018).

Image retrieved from: https://www.itzaarchaeology.com/zacpeten-structure-601/zacpeten-str-601-east-wall-stela-4-photo-timothy-pugh/

The glyph for ch’ul, or k’ul, is pictured; it is derived from the previously discussed form ch’ulel and can also be stylized as ch’ujul, k’ujul, ch’uhul, k’uhul. Although the original ch’ulel has broad religious synonyms such as “soul”, “holiness”, “divinity”, and “spirituality”, the ch’ul derivatives are more explicit: “sacred”, “holy”, “divine”. The six circular components that comprise the main structure of the glyph are, based on the ritual essence of the ch’ulel, believed to represent drops of blood, water, or incense pellets (Montgomery). It is possible that they also represent jade beads. It is intriguing to note that the ability to invoke ch’ulel does not appear limited to divine rulers or the Maya elite, as other religious rites may have been—instead, the ability to honor one’s ancestors through ritual appears to have transcended notions of wealth and class, demonstrating a shared religious worldview across diverse social strata.

Image retrieved from: http://research.famsi.org/montgomery_dictionary/mt_entry.php?id=197&lsearch=ch%27&search=