Comments on Incense Burners from Copan, Honduras

John M. Longyear, in his excellent presentation of the ceramics of Copan (1952), describes a vessel which he tentatively labels an incense burner. The vessel in question belongs to his Archaic period (?-A.D. 300). He considers it to be the only vessel from this period with possible ceremonial connot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American antiquity 1955-01, Vol.20 (3), p.284-286
Main Author: Borhegyi, Stephan F. de
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archaic period
Cylinders
Effigies
Facts and Comments
Figurines
Highlands
Hourglasses
Incense
Pottery
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Summary:John M. Longyear, in his excellent presentation of the ceramics of Copan (1952), describes a vessel which he tentatively labels an incense burner. The vessel in question belongs to his Archaic period (?-A.D. 300). He considers it to be the only vessel from this period with possible ceremonial connotations. Quoting Longyear (p. 24): “It is a thick-walled, rough-finished vase, set on three solid cylinder legs (fig. 42 a [reproduced here as Fig. 86, a]). The body is pierced by a number of large, horseshoe-shaped holes. This may very well have been an incensario of some sort.” Longyear gives more details about the same vessel (p. 92). “Other thickwalled, coarsely finished sherds appear to come from incensarios of jar type, only two of which could be reconstructed. One is a large jar, of ‘hourglass” silhouette, supported on three long solid cylinder legs. The walls are pierced by an undetermined number of horseshoe-shaped windows, and the basal angle bears indentations made by the fingertip (fig. 42a).
ISSN:0002-7316
2325-5064
DOI:10.2307/277012