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449 N o t e s o f M i d d l e A m e r i c a n A r c h a e o l o g y a n d E t h n o l o g y Carnegie Institution of Washington Division of Historical Research No. 105 December 1, 1951 further Notes on Three-pronged Incense Burners and Rim-Head Vessels in Guatemala Stephan F. de Borhegyi Museum, where they were later partially restored (Fig. 105.1a, b). fIGuRE 105.1A. CylINDRICAl THREE-pRoNGED INCENSE BuRNER, fRAGmENTARy. Paste: coarse, unslipped and unpolished yellowishgray ware, thickly sown with quartz and mica particles. Description: the three prongs are now missing but are indicated by scars on the flat top. The prongs were not encountered during the unearthing of the specimen or later in my supplementary investigation . In the center of the top is a circular indentation, the purpose of which is unknown (cf. Note 101). It may have been used as a container for copal incense. The specimen was very fragmentary and its reconstruction is only tentative. The notches in the cylindrical wall of the censer suggest that it was decorated with a delicate openwork design consisting of three horizontal rows of U-shaped perforations. The fragmentary condition of the specimen can probably be attributed to this decorative technique. Traces of thin, yellowish-white, calcareous wash are present on the exterior. Only the flat top of the incense burner is smoked. It should be noted that in spite of the fact that the specimens were said to have been found near the spring, none of them was water worn. Dimensions: approximate ht. (without prongs) 26 cm, approximate top diam. 21 cm. Provenience: Finca El Progreso (Dept. Santa Rosa). Museum Lot E–199. During March 1951, I spent a weekend at Finca El Progreso near Chiquimulilla, Department Santa Rosa, at the invitation of the owner, Faustino Padilla. The purpose of my visit was to investigate the spot where a three-pronged incense burner now located in the Guatemala National Museum (Fig. 97.7) was found in 1936. It was discovered, together with another fragmentary specimen, by the members of the Padilla family during the digging of a drainage canal connecting a natural spring with a wash basin. I had hoped that more material could be obtained by further excavation at the same spot and by a survey of the area. This unfortunately was not the case. The soil around the drainage canal where the incense burner was found proved to be sterile. The nearest archaeological site with mounds and surface material was located on the finca property at the west end of the sulphur lake, Ixpaco, approximately 2 km south of the drainage canal. The surface material from this site, called Terreno Dauro, ranged from Preclassic to Late Classic. It therefore seems possible that the inhabitants of this site may have presented the three-pronged incense burners as offerings to the spring, a custom not infrequent among the ancient Maya (Smith and Kidder 1943:144). More successful was the examination of the private collection of the Padilla family which revealed fragments from two more three-pronged incense burners, one of which (Fig. 105.1, 2) was mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Lic. Padilla kindly presented both of them to the Guatemala National sTephAn F. de borheGYi 450 made while the clay was wet. Three tool-indented fillets stretch from the top to the base of the prong on the back of the head. The specimen shows slight smudging. Dimensions: ht. of prong 10.5 cm. Provenience: Finca El Progreso (Dept. Santa Rosa). Museum Lot E–99A. Surface find from the archaeological site, Terreno Dauro. Chronological position: Early Preclassic Comparative material: similar cone-shaped, modeled effigy prongs with tear streaks have been reported from Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala (Fig. 97.5b, e, f). Later in March I visited the highlands of Guatemala with the purpose of tracking down more examples of three-pronged incense burners. In Quezaltenango in the private collection of Don Vitalino Robles I located three specimens, said to have come from the east bank of the Rio Samala near the town of Salcaja (Dept. Quezaltenango). Sr. Robles Chronological position: Early Preclassic. Associated material: the specimen was found with the three-pronged incense burner illustrated in Fig. 97.7. The two incense burners are very similar , the principal difference being that the openwork design of the latter is made up of triangular rather than U-shaped...

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