Izapa Stela 5 is one of a number of large, carved

stela A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

e found in the ancient

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

n site of

Izapa Izapa is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas; it is best known for its occupation during the Late Formative period. The site is situated on the Izapa River, a tributary of the Suchiate River, n ...

, in the

Soconusco Soconusco is a region in the southwest corner of the state of Chiapas in Mexico along its border with Guatemala. It is a narrow strip of land wedged between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost pa ...

region of

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

along the present-day Guatemalan border. These stelae date from roughly 300

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

to 50 or 100 BCE, although some argue for dates as late as 250 CE. Also known as the "Tree of Life" stone, it appears to illustrate a Mesoamerican creation myth.

The stela

Documented by Smithsonian archaeologist Matthew W. Stirling in 1941, Stela 5 is composed of volcanic

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

and weighs around one-and-a-half tons. Stela 5 presents the most complex imagery of all the stelae at Izapa. Researcher Garth Norman, for example, has counted "at least 12" human figures, a dozen animals, over 25 botanical or inanimate objects, and 9 stylized deity masks. Like much of Izapan monumental sculpture, the subject matter of Stela 5 is considered mythological and religious in nature and is executed with a stylized opulence. Given the multiple overlapping scenes, it appears to be a narrative.

Interpretation

Mesoamerican researchers identify the central image as a

Mesoamerican world tree World trees are a prevalent motif occurring in the mythical cosmologies, creation accounts, and iconographies of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. In the Mesoamerican context, world trees embodied the four cardinal directions, which al ...

, connecting the sky above and the water or underworld below.

Linda Schele Linda Schele (October 30, 1942 – April 18, 1998) was an American Mesoamerican archaeologist who was an expert in the field of Maya epigraphy and iconography. She played an invaluable role in the decipherment of much of the Maya hieroglyphs. She ...

and

Mary Ellen Miller Mary Ellen Miller (born December 30, 1952) is an American art historian and academician specializing in Mesoamerica and the Maya. Academic career A native of New York State, Miller earned her A.B. degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. fr ...

further propose that the stela records a creation myth, with barely formed humans emerging from a hole drilled into the tree's left side. The associated seated figures are completing these humans in various ways. Julia Guernsey Kappelman, on the other hand, suggests the seated figures are Izapa elites conducting ritual activities in a "quasi-historical scene", which is framed by, and placed in the context of, the "symbolic landscape of creation".

Alternative interpretations

Based on parallels with traditions originating in the Old World, a few researchers have linked the stone to theories of

pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories are speculative theories which propose that possible visits to the Americas, possible interactions with the indigenous peoples of the Americas, or both, were made by people from Africa, Asia, Europe, ...

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

theorist

M. Wells Jakeman Max Wells Jakeman (1910 – July 22, 1998) was the founder of the department of archaeology at Brigham Young University (BYU) and an early member of the advisory board of the New World Archaeology Foundation (NWAF). Jakeman has been described as "t ...

proposed that the image was a representation of a

tree of life vision The tree of life vision is a vision discussed in the Book of Mormon, one of the scriptures of Latter Day Saint movement, published by Joseph Smith in 1830. In the Book of Mormon, the vision was received in a dream by the prophet Lehi, and later in ...

found in the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

. Jakeman's theory was popular for a time among Mormons, but found little support from Mormon apologists. Julia Guernsey wrote that Jakeman's research "belies an obvious religious agenda that ignored Izapa Stela 5's heritage".Guernsey (2006), p. 56.

Notes

References

*, (1999)
"The History of an Idea: The Scene on Stela 5 from Izapa, Mexico, as a Representation of Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life"
accessed June 2008. *, (1959) "The Symbol of the Tree of Life in Ancient America, and the New Tree-of-Life Carving Discovered at Izapa, Chiapas, Mexico," University Archaeological Society Newsletter 22 (1959): 4. *, (1999) " A New Artistic Rendering of Izapa Stela 5: A Step toward Improved Interpretation", Maxwell Institute, 1999. Pp. 22–33 * (2006) ''Ritual and Power in Stone: The Performance of Rulership in Mesoamerican Izapan Style Art'', University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, . *

accessed December 2007. *

accessed December 2007. * (1953) "An Unusual Tree-of-Life Sculpture from Ancient Central America," in ''Bulletin of the righam YoungUniversity Archaeological Society'' vol 4: 26–49 *, (1952) ''An Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Xicalango Area of Western Campeche, Mexico.'' Bulletin of the University. Archaeological Society, no. 3. Brigham Young University, Provo. * (1990) ''The Art and Architecture of Ancient America'', 3rd Edition, Yale University Press, . * (1982) "Izapa: An Introduction to the Ruins and Monuments", in ''Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation'' 31: 110. *, (1973) ''Izapa Sculpture, Part 1: Album''. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 30. Brigham Young University, Provo. * (2007) ''Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica'', Cambridge University Press, . * *, (1943) "Stone Monuments of Southern Mexico," Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 138.

External links

Picture and drawing of the stoneThe History of an Idea: The Scene on Stela 5 from Izapa, Mexico, as a Representation of Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life A New Artistic Rendering of Izapa Stela 5: A Step toward Improved Interpretation
{{coord missing, Chiapas Mesoamerican inscriptions Buildings and structures in Chiapas Mesoamerican stelae Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact