V. Garth Norman

50 years of Izapa exploration at the Preclassic Izapa, Mexico’s Temple Observatory at 15 degrees North Latitude = Birthplace of the Maya 260-day Calendar.

Calendar research of ancient hieroglyphic writing in Mesoamerica includes Garth Norman’s  Astronomical Orientations of Izapa Sculptures (1980) and his recent Izapa Sacred Space: Sculpture Calendar Codex (2015-English; 2016-Espanol).

1. CALENDAR research by Garth Norman (1965-2020) is a major key to decoding the Preclassic history of Izapa (ca. 500 BC to 200 AD). Izapa’s plazas, carved stone monuments, & pyramids were oriented to cycles of the sun, moon, Venus, &  constellations. 
2. Explore the founding of Izapa by highly educated, BEARDED MIGRANTS ON THE SEA in the 5th century BC. that merged with Izapa’s surviving Olmec peoples (1500 BC–500 BC) to build a sophisticated temple center, equal to Teotihuacan (1 AD).  BELOW: IZAPA STELA 67 = Bearded man in boat.
3. Ancient Izapan building tools were from the eastern Mediterranean world, including astronomy, calendars,GEOMETRY & STANDARD MEASUREMENTS. Below:  a. BABYLONIAN & EGYPTIAN CUBITS BUILT art & architecture at Izapa.                        b. Izapa Stela 5 Tree of Life Monument showing Middle East GEOMETRY.
4. Izapa (500 BCE) is the ancestor of picto-graphic writing in Maya & Mixtec codices a 1,000 years later. Izapa’s POPOL VUH first ancestors came from across the sea (Stela 67 = #2 above). 
5. Izapa’s sophisticated calendar records world history & prophecy from creation to the afterlife. Carvings on Izapa Stela 12 (below) show 592 BC dates, also evident on Stela 5 with the “great year” of the Maya five world ages.
6. Izapa’s temple archive could become the first major achievement of the ultimate goal of archaeology, according to the late leading New World anthropologist Gordon R. Willey of Harvard University: “to discover the ideologies of lost civilizations and be able to assess their effectiveness to a greater or lesser degree for ensuring political and social success.”

Can a deeper understanding of the Preclassic history evident at Izapa and its cultural heritage that spread to all of Mesoamerica be evaluated for application to modern political and social challenges?

Izapa gained worldwide notoriety at the “end” of Maya five world ages on December 21, 2012. Traditional Highland Maya “Day-Keeper” Elders went to IZAPA on Dec.21,2012 to perform a sunrise fire ceremony to usher in the new 13 Baktun Age. K’iche’ migration creation celebration in the POPOL VUH when the Maya ancestors arrived in Guatemala in darkness and climbed a mountain to await the first appearance of Venus to usher in the first sun of the creation of a new age. View an important Maya fire ceremony at Izapa on YouTube: http://youtu.be/VovXbt14Eso  & on http://izapacalendar.com.

BOOK REVIEWS

of V. Garth Norman’s Izapa Sacred Space: Sculpture Calendar Codex (2015-English; 2016-Espanol)

Dr. Allen J. Christenson, Author-Translator of the Popol Vuh, Literal Poetic Version 2004.

“Garth Norman’s discovery of a massive calendar observatory system with astronomical alignments of mounds and monuments convincingly demonstrates that the Izapa monuments must be studied and interpreted as a whole, rather than try to read them individually or out of context. In addition, he masterfully demonstrates that Izapan artistic symbolism is just as highly developed a system of communication as the later hieroglyphic texts of the Maya, and a precursor to their development. Norman’s profound understanding of the underlying Mesoamerican theology of Izapa and related cultures uses the myth narratives of the Popol Vuh, sacred book of the K’iche’ Maya, and ethnographic sources creatively, showing that the Izapans were not just interested in the dance of planets and stars in the heavens, but also in what these movements say about the cycles of life itself. This book will surely prove to be of great interest to anyone interested in the art, science, and culture of ancient Mesoamerica.”

Dr. Scott Olsen, Professor of Philosophy, College of Central Florida; author of The Golden Section, Nature’s Greatest Secrets, 2006.

“Careful research and observations at the Izapa temple site, combined with some of the most comprehensive knowledge of ancient Olmec-Izapan-Maya calendar systems is contained in V. Garth Norman’s latest book, Izapa Sacred Space. Norman’s stunning discoveries of geometric design planning, and standard measures in monuments and architecture, as well as the 260-day sacred Maya calendar at Izapa attest to the astonishing knowledge gathered by the priest-astronomers at Izapa.”

Dr. Jason Jones (University of Warwick, England)

In 2012 Dr. Jones conducted RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging) digital technology recovery that confirmed the accuracy and integrity of Norman’s NWAF sculpture project (1973, 1976), questioned by flawed artistic re-drawings in the late 1990’s. Also in 2012, Dr. Robert M. Rosenswig (University of Albany), confirmed the accuracy of NWAF’s Izapa topo site map with LIDAR mapping. These studies back Izapa’s Precession measures site layout, and Stela 5’s World Tree time scale and geometric site map discovered by Norman.

“Teotihuacan was the center of an Empire [ca. 30 A.D.-600 A.D.] near Mexico City (upper left in map) that spread through all the area of this map–proven by carbon dating of ancient chocolate trade.  Chocolate came from the region of Izapa in Southern Mexico” (Dr. Michael Coe, Yale Archaeologist, October, 2015)Teotihuacan Temple of the Sun–astronomically aligned to a mountain–just as Izapa’s earlier (500 B.C.) pyramids were astronomically oriented to mountains.Teotihuacan Temple of the Moon–astronomically aligned to a mountain.

Teotihuacan Citadel of Quetzalcoatl–N-S-E-W.  12 + 3    12 PYRAMIDS – N-W-S;  EAST = 3 PYRAMIDS

Teotihuacan — Plaza of the Pyramid of the Moon. Statue of  a Water Goddess (3 meters high) created with Middle Eastern Geometry and Middle Eastern Cubit Measurements.

Chichen Itza, Yucatan

The Teotihuacan Empire spread to the Yucatan Peninsula. Chichen Itza (200-800 A.D.) El Castillo pyramid on each APRIL 6 all 9 triangles of shadow and light are visible on the western side of the north staircase between 5-5:30 pm. Two Merida scholars discovered this full perfect illumination & had no explanation for the APRIL 6 date, but felt it must commemorate a significant date in the life of the Mesoamerican god–Quetzalcoatl.  March 21, June 21, and Sept. 21 illuminations show only 7 triangles.

Click on photos=Full Screen

Izapa Stela 5 “Tree of Life” monument. Photo by V. Garth Norman for NWAF 1965. 

Izapa Stela 5 “Tree of Life” monument. RTI photo by Dr. Jason Jones (University of Warwick, England) 2016. 

 Izapa Tree of Life Stela 5 has: 1) Twelve Roots = ancestral roots; 2) Tree Trunk = Maya World Ages (jagged trunk line); 3) Eight Branches rise to a heavenly realm (VGN 2015: 158–1966 2 Photos above by C Anderson and VG Norman). Today’s Maya refer to original tribes & chiefs as roots and their descendants as branches of a tree. 

Maya Tzotzil Tree – The vision of the world: North = Heaven-Home of the Gods. Earth = Place of the living. South = Roots – Underworld place of the dead (Low, Lee, Martinez 1982).  Cutting down a Tree is a metaphor for death in ancient Mesoamerican traditions. 

Their first ancestors emerged from the underworld to earth through the roots of a giant ceiba world tree. After death the spirit ascends through the branches of the world tree into a heavenly paradise. 

Tree of Life monument was designed & created with the Babylonian Cubit “Golden Mandala” from the God’s foot (right of Tree).  The Maya creation story recorded in The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel states, “The Lord, our God the Father measured his footstep. . . .the day, as it was called, was created, heaven and earth were created, the stairway of water, the earth, rocks and trees; the things of the sea and the things of the land were created.” (Roys 1967: 116-117, Notes 10 & 11). 

Maya World Ages recorded on Izapa Stela 5 (from bottom to top): Creation (Movement), Jaguar, Wind, Rain, Water (VGN 2015:165).

Izapa Stela 5 Tree has 12 Roots, a trunk with jogs and cuts and shapes that measure the Maya World Ages. The top has 8 branches.  Left is the Goddess and right the God of the Tree. The Rain cycle begins on the right (east) showing rain falling into the rivers and ocean, then evaporation glyphs on the left (west) bring moisture back to the clouds at the top. The Rain Cycle symbolizes the Human Life Cycle.  The Ancestral Family is seated at the base.

RTI digital photo of Izapa Stela 5 “Tree of Life” stone. Izapa, Mexico 2016 by Dr. Jason Jones (University of Warwick, England). This digital photo confirms original NWAF photos of 1965, 1966, 1973, 1976 (VGN).

Dr. Jason B. Jones Digital Photo Project 2012-2014: “For the first time, digital three-dimensional (3D) imaging and 3D printing study techniques have been applied to Izapan sculpture. Specifically, the RTI/PTM imaging techniques developed by HP labs and Cultural Heritage Imaging, have provided an unprecedented ability to capture, examine and virtually relight carved relief. The results have shown a surprising amount of detail, which has not been lost to recent decades of weathering, as previously supposed. Above all, these methods have produced a permanent digital record that sets a new standard for documentation clarity, devoid of artistic subjectivity.”

Dr. Jason B. Jones, CEO, Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies; Inaugural winner–2015 International Additive Manufacturing Award.