*A Brief Summary of the Monuments in the Izapan Ballcourt*
*John Major Jenkins.* http://alignment2012.com
Adapted from previous research published in /The Center of Mayan Time/
(1995), /Izapa Cosmos/ (1996), /Maya Cosmogenesis 2012/ (1998), and
/Galactic Alignment/ (2002). More detailed online version of this piece
is at: http://alignment2012.com/Izapa.html
*Diagram 1.** The monuments of the Izapan ballcourt (Group F), looking
southeast to the rise position of the December solstice sun.*
1. Throne. Has solar god head emerging from between legs on east face.
Four short pedestal legs. No carving on top, but might be eroded. Throne
1 in Group B has an elaborate cross design on top. Thrones denote the
cosmic center.
2. Ball and ring. Referential to ballgame. Analogous to nearby “sun
between legs” of throne (the “seed in cleft” image which is the
hieroglyph for the ballgame).
3. Serpent head, upside down, probably had solar ball or sun-face in its
open mouth. These were sometimes used in ballcourts or on buildings as
corner markers. The sun-in-mouth image is analogous to the throne’s
sun-head and the ball-in-ring carvings.
All three of these symbol complexes relate to the same archetypal image
of the sun in “a cleft.” This could be a mouth, a goal-ring, or a birth
canal. The throne points down the lengthwise axis of the ballcourt
toward the sunrise position of the December solstice sun.
4. Six stone viewing seats. That the solstice sunrise sightline was
significant is strongly suggested by these council seats, which afforded
an elevated view of not only the ballfield, but the December solstice
sunrise. Anyone sitting on these seats would look over the following two
carvings (5 and 6) on the far eastern end of the ball court.
5. Stela 60. Depicts one of the Hero Twins standing over a fallen Bird
Deity. The carvings and orientation of Group A indicate that this Bird
Deity represents the Big Dipper to the north, rising and falling over
Tacana volcano. In the Maya Creation Myth, the Big Dipper is Seven
Macaw, the vain and false ruler of the previous World Age. The Hero
Twins facilitated his downfall so that their father, One Hunahpu (a
SOLAR lord), could be resurrected. Given the viewing orientation of the
viewing seats and anyone standing in front of Stela 60, we are justified
in suspecting that the solar rebirth will be found happening over the
solstice horizon. And the December solstice itself is the rebirth of the
sun in the annual cycle. But the Creation Myth, which is the subject of
these carvings, is concerned with the shifting of World Ages, implying
we must be sensitive to recognizing a much larger cycle of solar rebirth
(a new “Sun” or “Age”).
6. Ball and ring, in front of Stela 60. This, like the one on the
opposite end of the ball court, refers to the ballgame and the set of
“sun-in-cleft” references. In the predawn sky over the solstice horizon,
a cleft feature on the Milky Way would have been observed 2,100 years
ago, during Izapa’s heyday. This is the “Black Road” or “Great Cleft”
formed by interstellar dust in the region of the Milky Way’s “nuclear
bulge” or Galactic Center. This was known to the Maya as the /Xibalba be
/(the Road to the Underworld), which could also be portrayed as the
mouth of a jaguar or sky dragon (as on Izapa Stela 25). In ballgame
symbolism, the ballcourt was associated with the Milky Way and the
goal-ring was associated with the Great Cleft. Some 2,100 years ago, the
solstice sun and the Great Cleft were separated by about 30 degrees.
Today, they have converged via the precession of the equinoxes. In other
words, the solstice sun and the Great Cleft are joined in the years
around 2012 AD. The profound implications of this are the primary focus
of my research.
7. Sky Lifter carving. Very eroded, but identifiable via similar
characteristics with a Sky Lifter carving found in the nearby village of
Tuxtla Chico. An Olmec Sky Lifter, recovered from the cone of San Martin
Volcano near the Gulf Coast, was interpreted as a being who lifts the
Milky Way into place as the Axis Mundi—a dawn-time Creation event. He
holds a bar that he turns upward, from horizontal to vertical. This
suggests a movement of the Milky Way. This carving was found in the
middle of the south wall of the ballcourt. Directly opposite, in the
middle of the north wall, Stela 67 was found.
8. Stela 67. Similar to Stelae 11 and 22. Here, a solar lord sits in the
middle of a cosmic canoe. Incised bones from Tikal reveal that celestial
canoes represented the Milky Way. His outstetched arms indicate a
“period ending” event. He is probably the Hero Twins’ father, One
Hunahpu, who is resurrected at the end of the Age, after they defeat
Seven Macaw and the Lords of the Underworld. The sun located in the
middle of the Milky Way canoe is compelling. Combined with the emphasis
on the solstice sun via the ballcourt’s orientation, and other arguments
omitted here, this solar deity (One Hunahpu) is probably the December
solstice sun lord. The seating declivity of canoes could easily be seen
to be analogous to the Great Cleft of the Milky Way, which shares this
astronomical identification with so many other mythological
adumbrations. In such a scenario it becomes difficult to avoid deducing
that the entire complex of carvings in the Izapan ballcourt express the
alignment of the solstice sun lord with the Great Cleft in the Milky
Way. Such a rare alignment occurs via precession, and it happens in the
era of the 13-baktun cycle’s ending date, December 21, 2012.
9. Stela 69. A carving fragmented in three parts. Enough is left to
notice the Seven Macaw Bird Deity, in a state of fleeing or flight from
two figures on the left, probably the Hero Twins. As with Stela 25, this
carving depicts some episode from the Hero Twin myth, perhaps the arm of
Hunahpu being torn off or Seven Macaw being shot at. At any rate, Seven
Macaw has not yet fallen, as on Stela 60. A person viewing Stela 69,
which is above Stela 67 on the upper tier of the ballcourt, would look
to the north, where the Big Dipper rose and fell over Tacana volcano
during Izapa’s heyday. In confirmation that this northern sighting
direction was part of the ballcourt cosmogony, the pillar monument a
dozen yards northwest of the ballcourt faces Tacana volcano.
10. Inverted T-shape stone, in the middle of the south wall. this
inconspicuous stone is actually very revealing of how "the middle" of
the ballcourt was conceived. The stone is very much like the "container"
on Stela 14, (Group C) in which the Hero Twins are enwombed and over
which a jaguar-serpent arches. It is also one-half of a quadrated
cartouche which symbolizes the portal to the Otherworld (see discussion
in part 2 below). This inverted T-shape represents a vessel, a
container, and a womb. A viewer could watch the nuclear bulge of the
Milky Way pass through the southern meridian on certain nights. In fact,
at certain times on certain nights, the Milky Way stretches in a SE-NW
orientation which mirrors the orientation of the ballcourt itself.
* * *
This was a concise summary of the most important monuments of the Izapa
ballcourt. Much argument and citation has been left out, since longer
studies, including my monograph of 1996 and Part 4 in /Maya Cosmogenesis
2012/ (1998) have been perhaps too long and detailed to allow for a
quick grasp of the significance of my thesis. Which is: /The monuments
in the Izapan ballcourt encode a knowledge of the solstice-galaxy
alignment of era-2012, and that alignment was the intended target anchor
for the end of the 13-baktun cycle and thus the placement of the Long
Count in real time./
I am very interested in having a dialogue with progressive Mayan
scholars on my reconstruction of Izapan cosmology, as this synthesis of
the accepted data is straightforward. The assemblage of different lines
of evidence, all converging on the same conclusion, seems to me to
eliminate coincidence as a viable alternate explanation for the
integrative continuity of these symbol complexes. Please share your
thoughts.
John Major Jenkins
January 10, 2006
John@Alignment2012.com
Carvings 1, 2, and 3 (in the diagram):
Viewing seats (4 in the diagram):
Stela 60 (5 in the diagram):
Not pictured: Number 6 in the diagram is a stone ball in a stone ring.
Sky Lifter deity (7 in diagram):
San Martin Sky Lifter (left); Tuxtla Chico “Danzante” Sky Lifter
(middle); Izapa Sky Lifter from ballcourt (right).
Stela 67 (8 in the diagram):
NOTE: For a discussion of the similar and recently restored Stela 22,
see discussion below in Part 2.
Stela 69 (9 in the diagram):
10. Miscellaneous Monument 61:
As explained above, this inverted T-shape symbol is found elsewhere at
Izapa, including Stela 14, in which it represents the womb containing
the Hero Twins:
(Note: The connection here was noted on the May 2008 trip to Izapa.)
Pillar monument facing Tacana volcano to the north (not pictured in the
first diagram):
The Izapan ballcourt, aligned with the December solstice sunrise horizon.
Pictures taken February 2001. © John Major Jenkins.
*Part 2.
Stela 22: A Tri-level Deity Paradigm *
Stela 22 was recently restored with a newly found piece and redrawn by
Ayax Moreno. Illustrations below are adapted from Moreno's drawing of it
in "Carved in Stone: The Cosmological Narratives of Late Preclassic
Izapan-Style Monuments From the Pacific Slope" by Julia Guernsey
Kappelman, in /Heart of Creation: The Mesoamerican World and the Legacy
of Linda Schele/ (Ed. Andrea Stone, University of Alabama Press, 2002).
*Stela 22: A Tri-level Deity Paradigm. by John Major Jenkins. May 2006*
Stela 22 has an unusual history. It was found in a discarded location in
Group F, in the 1950s. A local person acquired it and recarved the
surfaces, to imaginatively deepen the design. The actual lines of the
authentic design were thereby obscured and mutilated. Today it stands at
the entrance to the Group F ballcourt, an abstract rendition of the
original artifact. Luckily, the carving had been photographed, so the
original design, although itself somewhat eroded, could be
reconstructed. In addition, Kappelman (2002) reported that Ayax Moreno
found that a miscellaneous piece of a carving fit the top portion of
Stela 22, and he was thereby able to add new details to the design. A
photograph and a drawing of the restored virtual carving of Stela 22 follow:
photo from "Izapa" in /Hako Magazine,/ Summer 2002, online at:
http://www.hakomagazine.net/summary/hako24.pdf
The upper portion shows the lower register of a sky band, so we know
that we have reached the upper limit of the carving, and thus most of
the design is preserved. Several significant things can be said. First,
the image is so closely similar to Stela 67, that we should suspect that
Stela 67 had iconographic motifs in the same locations of its lost
sections. Second, the restored Stela 22 contains three tiers or levels
of action. This three-level framework probably mimics the three levels
of Izapan cosmography—ocean to the south, the narrow plain of Soconusco
in which Izapa itself is situated, and mountains or volcanoes to the
north. This division reflects the arrangement of serpent deities and
bird deities in Group A and elsewhere, associating birds with the north
and serpents or frogs with the south. I've pointed out that this no
doubt reflects the orientation of the three main monument groups (A, B,
and F) with three cosmic centers (Polar, Zenith, and Galactic). It is
therefore possible that Stela 22 preserves, in microcosm, the tripartite
cosmic-center paradigm of Izapan cosmology. With this in mind, let's
highlight the three levels of Stela 22. Level 1 contains two fish
swimming in water, two masks on the far left and right sides, and a
solar deity in a canoe in the middle:
This much closely parallels what we also see on Stela 67. Kappelman
points out that the masks here on Stela 22 are death heads (note the
white bone on cheek). The distinction then, between Stela 22 and Stela
67, is that one relates to the death or descent of the Maize God (who I
emphasize is a /solar/ deity, the /December solstice sun/ and One
Hunahpu in the Creation Myth) and the other relates to the birth or
rebirth of the Maize God / December solstice sun. The second tier is
clearly visible on Stela 22, which we will see in the following two
illustrations:
I chose to shade, on the left, what appears to be a serpent headed rope
that suspends the canoe over the waters. A parallel serpent rope is on
the right. The one I've shaded seems to tip a rectangular cartouche
upward. The cartouche is an inverted mirror of the canoe below, angled
like an opening mouth. The suggestion is that the two have been
separated, revealing the Solar Maize Deity. As Kappelman pointed out,
joining the two halves creates a familiar image of the four-sided
underworld portal cartouche. It thus makes sense that the Solar Maize
Deity is dying or being reborn at the portal to the underworld. Riding
atop the upper half of the underworld cartouche, we see a crouching
jaguar. This being appears in at least two other contexts on Izapan
monuments. In one he rides in a sedan carried by two figures, possibly
the Hero Twins. This suggests he is an honored royal totem symbol. In
another, a jaguar is suspended from sky ropes, apparently being cooked
or sacrificed over a fire tended by two figures below. This isn't really
surprising, because deity sacrifice was a central feature of
Mesoamerican religion.
The jaguar here on Stela 22 occupies the middle tier. Since the upper
and lower tiers are associated with the south and north (with the
galactic and polar centers), it is tempting to equate the jaguar with
the zenith symbology so evident in Group B. The reasons why the jaguar
would be associated with the zenith, as well as the Pleiades that cross
the zenith on certain days and in the New Fire ceremony, are unclear.
Perhaps the jaguar was important because he combined solar and Pleiadian
symbolism, since spotted jaguar pelts were identified by Schlak as
symbols of the Pleiades, and jaguars were also seen as solar animals.
[Schlak, "Jaguar and Serpent Foot: Iconography as Astronomy, in /Word
and Image in Maya Culture/, ed. Hanks and Rice, University of Utah
Press, 1989: 265.] Mouths of jaguars were seen as portals to the
underworld, and the underworld was accessed at the cosmic crossroads.
Still on Level 2, the anthropomorphized figures holding the serpent-head
ropes may be possums:
Possums were year-bearer symbols in the Classic Period. They seem to
have speech or song scrolls emitting from their mouths. They both have
long tails. The one on the right seems to hold the rectangular
underworld portal cartouche. In some way they may be standard bearers.
At any rate they belong with the jaguar on Level 2. Kappelman
demonstrated that the Maize God on Level 1 was enthroned; I suggest that
the crouching jaguar is also enthroned. In fact, with the bird deitiy at
the third level, three levels of enthronement are probably suggested
here, reinforcing my thesis that Izapan cosmography is basically
tripartite in nature, with reference to three cosmic centers and their
three enthroned deities. Level 3 of Stela 22 shows the sky dragon, or
the so-named Principal Bird Deity that is most likely referential to
Seven Macaw in the Creation Myth (the Big Dipper in the circumpolar
northern sky):
Each of the three levels on Stela 22 has two attendants flanking the
central figure. The symbolic intention is probably very similar to the
three levels of enthroned deities or rulers depicted on the
near-contemporary Kaminaljuyu monument 65:
(drawing by the author, from /Maya Cosmogenesis 2012/, 1998: 252)
I believe that the three main monument groups of Izapa provide a
tripartite template for understanding the manifestation of triad deity
relations in later Classic Period Maya sites, including Palenque. In
understanding the astronomical basis of these deities, and the
variations in solar and stellar phenomena that happen seasonally in
relation to the polar, zenith, and galactic centers, we may be able to
understand the often conflicting and confusing attributes of the Triad
Gods. So, the recent restoration of Stela 22 opens up some interesting
considerations and provides a lot to talk about.
/John Major Jenkins. Part 2, Copyright. May 6, 2006.
http://Alignment2012.com /
//
Update, January 2007. I've discovered an old essay by Susannah Ekholm
regarding an amazing tri-leg figure found in Mound 30a just west of the
ballcourt. Based on her likely reconstruction of the figure, we have yet
another confirmation that some kind of trinary concept was utilized, or
known, at Izapa. This has meaning in terms of the three primary monument
groups at Izapa being referential to the three cosmic centers and three
deity-avatars, and also relates to the three levels of Stela 22
discussed above. See my essay on this figurine here:
http://Alignment2012.com/izapa-trinary-figure.html
Ceramic head from Izapa.
photo from "Izapa," in /Hako Magazine/, Summer 2002, online at:
http://www.hakomagazine.net/summary/hako24.pdf