Ancient Maya Pottery: Classification, Analysis, and Interpretation

12. Mayapán’s Chen Mul Modeled Effigy Censers: Iconography and Archaeological Context

12 Mayapán’s Chen Mul Modeled Effigy Censers Iconography and Archaeological Context Susan Milbrath and Carlos Peraza Lope Full-figure effigy censers are best known from Mayapán, a major regional capital in the lowland Maya area during the Late Postclassic period. The southern boundaries of this polity are not certain but may well have included Petén, where ceramics and architecture show some specific overlaps with Mayapán (Andrews 1984; Milbrath and Peraza 2003b: 24, fig. 1; Pugh 2003). Effigy censers found at abandoned or partially abandoned Classic and Terminal Classic period sites in the Yucatán Peninsula, such as Champotón, Cobá, Kulubá, and Edzná, are thought to indicate veneration of ancestors and ancestral Maya sites in the Late Postclassic period (Barrera et al. 2003; Benavides 1981: 98; Miller 1982: fig. 101; Millet 1992). This article is an overview of the effigy censer type known as Chen Mul Modeled, first identified at Mayapán, the most important Maya city in the northern Maya lowlands between A.D. 1150 and 1450. As will be seen, examination of the origin and chronology of these effigy censers indicates a local origin, even though there are possible precursors at Epiclassic sites. We also discuss the archaeological context of the effigy censers in burials, ritual caches, and both ceremonial and residential structures at Mayapán, in contrast to the more limited contexts at other sites. Few imports of effigy censers from Mayap án appear at these sites, suggesting that production of effigy censers was localized. Also, Mayapán has a much larger repertoire of deities represented in effigy censers, and a number of gods from the Maya codices can be recognized. As will be seen, central Mexican deities are also depicted in the corpus, but they are much more limited in number. Effigy censers are the most important type of ceramics found at Mayapán (figure 12.1). The Chen Mul Modeled type, originally defined by Robert Smith (1971: 206–212), is part of the Unslipped Panaba Group of Mayapan Unslipped Susan Milbrath and Carlos Peraza Lope 204 Ware of the Tases ceramic complex (A.D. 1250/1300–1450). Smith reports that Chen Mul Modeled effigy censers constituted 45.9 percent of all the sherds in the Tases phase, indicating the dominance of effigy censers in the material excavated by the Carnegie archaeologists during the 1950s. Ceramic frequencies for more than ten seasons (1996–present) of Instituto Nacional de Antropolog ía e Historia (INAH) excavations at Mayapán have not yet been tabulated, but we estimate that fragments of Chen Mul Modeled effigy censers represent at least 25 percent of the total ceramic deposits. Thus, even though we focus Figure 12.1. Mayapán Chen Mul Modeled censer representing God N. (Photo by Susan Milbrath, courtesy of INAH.) Mayapán’s Chen Mul Modeled Effigy Censers 205 here on only one type of ceramics (Chen Mul Modeled type, Chen Mul Modeled variety), it represents the single most important type at the site. As we will see, local copies of this type were made at numerous sites throughout the Maya area. The distribution of these censers seems to overlap with regions where the Yucatecan languages (Yucatec, Lacandón, Itzaj, and Mopán) were spoken at the time of the conquest in the Yucatán Peninsula, the Guatemalan Petén, and Belize. Although linking ethnic groups with ceramic types is certainly fraught with problems, the broader censer complex we refer to elsewhere as the Chen Mul Modeled system (Milbrath et al. 2008) does seem to overlap with the distribution of the Yucatecan languages. The Chen Mul Modeled type is characterized by medium- and large-sized effigy censers with figures that are attached in an upright position to a cylindrical vase with a flaring pedestal base and rim. A concave floor with openings (also found in the pedestal sides) provided a draft for burning copal, fragments of which are sometimes found on the floor along with fire-blackening marks. The figures themselves are hollow and attached at the head and buttocks to the vase. The elbows are bent, most often with hands raised and holding some form of offering. The figures are painted in multiple colors that include black, white, red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and turquoise. They have well-shaped hands with tapering fingers, usually showing fingernails. Toenails are also shown on feet with modeled toes, although occasionally the toes are merely...