This article deals with incensarios from the Maya site of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico and its immediate hinterland. A description of three thematic subcategories of incensarios is followed by a discussion of results of neutron activation analysis of incensarios and other pottery from the region. One theme category of incensario, the standing-figure, was hypothesized on stylistic grounds not to have been made at Palenque. Two compositional reference groups formed from non-incensario pottery are inferred to have been made near Palenque, while 5 other groups were probably made elsewhere. Projection of incensario analyses into the discriminant space defined by non-incensario pottery indicates that 73 percent of standing-figure incensarios and 89 percent of tier-of-heads incensarios were probably made near Palenque. Thus, the chemical data for standing-figure incensarios contradicts the stylistic inference. Possible sources of error in time-space systematics and analytical procedures are mentioned. One means of reconciling the chemical and stylistic data is to suggest that ritual items moved both into and away from Palenque, but that sanctions for the production of culturally essential items were often vested in specialists at Palenque.