"The Dead are Fed with Fragrance": A study of Maya censers from the Guatemala highlands

Abstract

This study will analyze a collection of Maya censers collected by Robert Burkitt from the Guatemala highlands during the 1920s. It will describe the censers and compare them to censers excavated at other Mesoamerican sites. It will explain how they may have been produced, suggest how they may have been used, and offer an interpretation of their iconography. This study argues that the Burkitt censers in their use and in their iconography relate to themes of sacrifice, the underworld, and the crossing of boundaries. The censers thus provide information about the afterlife and the relationship between the living, the dead, and the divine.