Editing Censer (section)

==Mesoamerica==
[[File:Tapadera de incensario teotihuacana (M. América Inv.91-11-45) 01.jpg|thumb|[[Teotihuacan]] censer lid. Museo de América, Madrid]]
Used domestically and ceremonially in Mesoamerica, particularly in the large Central-Mexican city of [[Teotihuacan]] (100–600 AD) and in the many kingdoms belonging to the [[Maya civilization]], were ceramic incense burners. The most common materials for construction were [[Adobe]], plumbate,<ref>Bruhns, Karen Olsen. “Plumbate Origins Revisited.” American Antiquity, vol. 45, no. 	04, 1980, pp. 845–848., doi:10.2307/280154.</ref> and [[earthenware]]. These materials can be dried by the sun and were locally sourced, making them the perfect material for a Mayan craftsman. Censers vary in decoration. Some are painted using a [[fresco]] style technique or decorated with ''adornos'',<ref name="Feinman, Gary M. 1995">Feinman, Gary M., and Dorie Reents-Budet. "Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period." The Hispanic American Historical Review 75, no. 3 (1995): 457. doi:10.2307/2517243.</ref> or small ceramic ornaments. These decorations usually depicted shells, beads, butterflies, flowers, and other symbols with religious significance that could to increase rainfall, agricultural abundance, fertility, wealth, good fortune or ease the transition of souls into the underworld.<ref>Morehart, Christopher T., Abigail Meza Peñaloza, Carlos Serrano Sánchez, Emily Mcclung De Tapia, and Emilio Ibarra Morales. "Human Sacrifice During the Epiclassic Period in the Northern Basin of Mexico." Latin American Antiquity 23, no. 04 (2012): 426-48. doi:10.7183/1045-6635.23.4.426.</ref> To identify precious materials such as [[jadeite]] and [[quetzal]] feathers, important visual markers of status,<ref name="Feinman, Gary M. 1995"/> artists used colorful paints.

Used to communicate with the gods, these censers functioned for acts of religious purification. Incense would be presented to the divine being. In fact, some people were appointed the position of fire priest. Fire priests dealt with most tasks related to incense burning. Some rituals involved a feast, which would be followed by the fire priest igniting a sacred brazier in the temples. It was given to the divine beings and deities as offerings on a daily basis. The practice would end at the sound of a trumpet made from a conch shell. Another function of incense was to heal the sick. Once recuperated, the diseased would present some incense to the appropriate gods to repay them for being cured.<ref>Culler, Judith L. Incense Burners. Gettysburg  Pa: Gettysburg College/Gettysburg Pa., 1961. Print.</ref> Made up of [[copal]] (tree resin), rubber, pine, herbs, myrrh, and chewing gum, the incense produced what was described as "the odor of the center of heaven."<ref>Coe, Michael D. The Maya, Seventh Edition. 2005.</ref>

The shape of incense burners in the Maya southern lowlands reflected religious and cultural changes over time. Some censers were used in funerals and funerary rituals, such as those depicting the Underworld Jaguar or the Night Sun God. When a king would die, ‘termination rituals’ were practiced. During these rituals, ''[[incensario]]s'' would be smashed and older temples were replaced with new ones.<ref>Rice, P.M. 1999, ‘Rethinking Classic lowland Maya pottery censers’, ''Ancient Mesoamerica'', vol. 10, no.1, pp.25-50.</ref> Mayan censers, which had a reservoir for incense on top of a vertical shaft were highly elaborate during the Classic period (600–900 AD), particularly in the kingdom of [[Palenque]], and usually show the head of a Mayan deity. In Post-Classic Yucatán, particularly in the capital of the kingdom of [[Mayapan]], censers were found in great numbers, often shaped as an aged priest or deity. Craftsmen produced Mayan censers in many sizes, some just a few inches in height, others, several feet tall.