V. Garth Norman

 www.amazon.com.

Izapa located at 15° North Latitude: birthplace of the “SACRED 260-DAY CREATION OF MAN” Calendar–discovered by Dr. Vincent Malmström (1973, 1997–Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization).

 1. The “SACRED 260-DAY CREATION OF MAN” Calendar began at Izapa, Mexico’s 15° North Latitude (Olmecs: 1600-500 BC; Izapa-Mayas: 550 BC-400 AD) & taken in 100 BC to Teotihuacan, Mexico, & Nazca, Peru-at 15° South Latitude, & to all Mesoamerica, & later to Parowan Gap, Utah, USA (700 AD).

2. BABYLONIAN & EGYPTIAN CUBITS from the Middle East were used to create the art & architecture of the Izapa Temple Observatory & most other ancient Mesoamerican Temples.

3. Carbon Dating at IZAPA: Olmec Civilization (1600 BC-500 BC) Izapa-Maya Civilization (550 BC-400 AD); Maya Civilization (200-1000 AD).

L-R: Sergio Navas, Rudolfo Juan Flores, Alberto, Garth Norman, Jason Jones

 Izapa Visitor Center: Artist Israel Ramos, Owner Antonio D’amiano Atristain & wife Mirna Janet standing in front of the new Center.

So.Mexico-West Guatemala’s POPOL VUH states that their ancestors CAME FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SEA. (Recinos 1950: 5, 77-80) — VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovXbt14Eso#t=14

June 20-27, 2010 The Maya Conservancy (Georgeanne Johnson-President) sponsored a tour with 13 Quiche and a dozen Maya scholars.

Quiche Mayan Elders performed their sacred 260 Day Count “CREATION OF MAN” ceremony at Izapa in 2010 for the first time in 1,000 years. Right – Rigoberto Itzep clothed in Ceremonial white with headscarf, shawl, apron, and sash. He burns incense as he blesses the Izapa Temple Center.

 Blessing the body from head to toe.

Click LINK for Power Point of new 2018: IZAPA VISITOR CENTER-1-3pptx [Autosaved]

The Antiquities of Mesoamerica were constructed using BABYLONIAN and EGYPTIAN CUBITS (First reported by Garth Norman at the Sixth Palenque Round Table, 1986, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico)

                       Olmec (1500 BC- 500 BC) LaVenta Park, Mexico                                        Stela carving was created using the Royal Babylonian Cubit.

Izapa, Mexico (500 BC-600 AD) Stone monuments were created with Babylonian & Egyptian cubits.

Maya (200 AD- 800 AD) Palenque Palace, Mexico – T Window created with Babylonian Cubit measurements.

Popol Vuh: “Great were the descriptions and the account of how all the sky and earth were formed  . . .  and the MEASURING-CORD was brought, and it was stretched in the sky and over the earth, on the four angles, on the four corners, as was told by the Creator and the Maker . . .” (Recinos 1950: 5, 78-80).

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 Mesoamerica Formative era major sites: 1500 B.C. to 250 A.D http://www.utexas.edu/cofa/art/347/347m_map.html#

BIRTHPLACE OF THE SACRED 260-DAY MAYA CALENDAR 15 degrees North Latitude. Stelae Photos: Garth Norman UNCIRCLED NUMBERS = 13 MONTHS Sept. 21=New Year CIRCLED NUMBERS = IZAPA STELAE LOCATIONS

Personal (Click on items at Right to view Stelae photos) —————————————–>

Izapa Stelae Plazas-West sides-1965-2018 Photos            Izapa Stelae Plazas-South sides-1965-2018 Photos         Izapa Stelae Plazas-East sides-1965-2018 Photos           Izapa Stelae Plazas-North sides-1965-2018 Photos

1966 Earliest & Least Weathered NWAF Photo of Izapa Stela 5 “Tree of Life” Chiastic Carving. (Photo: Andersen & Norman-1965). Stela 5 aligns to August 13 Zenith passage, the beginning of the Maya 260-Day Sacred Creation Count that culminates on April 30.

Stela 5 = Popol Vuh (Book of the People-Recinos 1950:79-80) Two figures on Left & Right of Tree: “the Creator & the Maker, the Mother & the Father of Life, of all created things”. The Popol Vuh’s Ancestral family (6) seated on the base panel are: L-R = Mother, Father, 2 sons with backs to tree, + 2 sons at right. Right side: The grain headdress of the 1st person under the umbrella represents an Egyptian Grain God named NEPRI. [1].

Stela 5 Tree=Maya Five World Ages (Norman 2015: 182).

Maya Five World Ages History Tree Trunk begins at 3120 BCE up to 2012 CE (top left line)=5200 years of Izapan-Mayan world history (see picture below). 2/3 up left of tree, a man is figuratively reborn from the tree, into the heavenly Tamoanchan paradise at the start of the 13th Baktun–Winter solstice 2012 AD. The 12 Tree Roots represent Ancestors in Mayan cosmology.

(Olmec: 1500 BC, Izapan: 500 BC-400 AD)

[1] https://www.ancient.eu/article/885/egyptian-gods—the-complete-list/)

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.

Nazca, Peru dates from 100 B.C. near the Pacific Ocean. Astronomical orientations, geometry, & standard measures are the same as Izapa’s–ca.1500 B.C. + new styles at 500 B.C.

Izapa, Mexico – 14.8 degrees North Latitude-Sun Zenith Passages August 13 & April 30 = 260 Days

Equator

Nazca, Peru – 14.8 degrees South Latitude-Sun Zenith Passages Feb 12 & Oct. 31 = 260 Days

Nazca, Peru gigantic lines portray the same symbols and designs that are at the Izapa, Mexico Temple Center. The man, the fertility and the woman lines are drawn in the sand at Nazca, Peru to represent the 260-Day (9 month) human fertility cycle.

Cahuachi Temple, Peru near Nazca, Peru. The sacred Geometry of the Cahuachi Temple is shown in the drawing below which includes astronomical orientations to the sacred 260-Day sun passages.

LARGEST TEMPLE CENTER on Pacific Coast of Southern Mesoamerica (Olmec: 1500 BC & Izapan: 500 B.C.-Mayan 200 A.D.).

Izapa has 33 PYRAMIDS & 10 PLAZAS, 90+ CARVED STONE STELAE.  The Izapan cultural period influenced virtually all of the rising ancient Mesoamerican cultures –1) BABYLONIAN & EGYPTIAN cubits measured ancient structures,  2) the SACRED 260 DAY calendar originated at Izapa, & 3) ancient CHOCOLATE commerce  throughout Mesoamerica came from the region of Izapa (Norman 2015; Coe: 2015). 

                      OLMEC——IZAPAN*——MAYA                          1500 BC——-500 BC——-200AD

• Izapa-located at 14.8° North Latitude-where the Sun Zenith Passage measures SACRED 260 DAYS (August 13 to April 30) discovered by Dartmouth Professor Dr. Vincent Malmström (1973, 1997-Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization.
• Stelae are aligned astronomically to Sun, Moon & Venus cycle rises on the eastern horizon.
• CALENDAR ROUND at Izapa has a continuous running day count from creation of 3120 B.C., the Base Date of the Maya Creation 260 Day Ceremony.
• Ancient BABYLONIAN & EGYPTIAN cubits and Ancient Geometry were used to create the stone carvings and the Temple Center planning and positioning of Mounds.
• The human LIFE CYCLE STORY carved on monuments, expresses man’s creation from a pre-mortal realm, mortal road of life and immortal destiny back to the heavenly realm.
• Some POPOL VUH Stories (sacred book of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala) are represented on some Izapa carved stelae.

“E” (above)=position of the Zenith Sun Passages on August 13 & April 30 on Izapa’s eastern horizon. Yellow in the circle below shows the 260 days measured between the two appearances of the Zenith Sun Passage at Izapa when there are no shadows at noon.

“260 Days is the 9 month creation, gestation, zenith cycle ending with the birth of a human baby–the summum bonum of all creation” (Norman 2015:90). 

Stela 8 (above) begins 260 days (human gestation time)             Stela 10 (right) shows a spirit child in clouds descending to its pregnant mother by a Tree of Life at end of the 260 day Count.

Izapa Plaza B’s “Throne” (next to the left pillar) aligns with the Sun Zenith Passages and also the constellation Orion. 

August 13, 2012 crowd at Izapa raise their hands at noon and shout when the Zenith sun is directly overhead and casts no shadow. 

Palenque ruins exhibit the Mesoamerican Standard Measure and Geometric planning discovered in 1980 by Garth Norman. The excellent precision drawings of Palenque panels by Merle Green Robertson, Linda Schele, and Alfred Maudslay, made my task of checking geometric structure in the five major Palenque slab sculptures a truely rewarding exercise. The Palenque panels express an unsurpassed vitality for utilizing the geometric mandala frame with great variety of artistic creativity. The consistency of their golden mandala formats seem self evident. Divisions in the Palace hieroglyphic panel (below) were obviously dictated by the underlying Golden Mandala format. The center point was interestingly reserved for reference to the ancestral King Pacal in the text. Centers on all carvings are easily located between base and side mandala border references. The open top (except Sarcaphogus lid below), seems to refer to the unbound sky as expressed on Izapa sculptures in upward sloping sky panels. The composition of the Foliated Cross panel to my Golden Mandala reconstruction (as with other Palenque panels) appears self evident.

The perfection of the Golden Mandala composition is reflected in mirror images and glyph columns on opposite sides of sculptures that conform to geometry lines. The composition and theme of Pacal’s Sarcaphogus Lid carving are distinctly rooted in the Izapan tradition, best manifest on Izapa Stela 5. This Palenque carving is unsurpassed in Mesoamerican art for its beauty in expressing immortality. I believe the geometry dramatizes that theme. In addition to the conch, Pacal is being lifted by the long-lipped masks beneath his foot and in back of his head. Pacal is in the midst of flowering through the action of the sun (Kin glyph) on the crown of the earth monster. He sits directly on a budding blossom. Death is evident in the Cimi glyph at the right, but life out of death is manifested in the tri-partite leaf plant projecting from it. As with most dramatic death scenes at Izapa (Stelae 12 and 50), the focus of death here is unmistakably toward a subsequent heavenly ascension.

Measurements of antiquities at Palenque

Further evidence is added through measurements of Palenque sculpture (Classic Maya) during a 1986 field study and from excellent scaled drawings of Merle Greene Robertson. Life size stucco-ed Maya figures on temple wall panels and pillars have hands and fingers curved in gestures for the full forearm length to be measured along the back of the hand and around the fingers. Regardless of the different gestures, forearms of four out of the six intact figures in the Palace are the same length–49.5 cm. Babylonian Cubit. An added surprise came in finding that intact feet on these figures are consistently half the arm length (24.75 cm.) indicating that the foot acts in conjunction with the arm as a standard measure.

A double Royal Babylonian Cubit is found on forearms of the carved giants in the north court of the Palace, and a smaller carved figure in that court measures a full RB Cubit – 49.5 cm.

Other measures reveal the RB Cubit was used in Palenque architecture. Some T-shaped windows in the Palace are exactly 1 RB Cubit high and 1 RB cubit wide. Others that differ may have been the work of less skilled masons. Four out of six hieroglyphic panels in the west wall of the Palace’s north court are one RB Cubit square.

49.5 cm. Royal Babylonian cubit

Palenque figure’s foot measures half of arm’s 49.5 cm. Royal Babylonian Cubit

  Major Ancient Migrations from Central to North America = 100 BC, 700 AD, 900 -1200 AD

PAROWAN GAP, UTAH – 700 AD

The Parowan Gap-Nature”s Perfect Observatory by V. Garth Norman (amazon.com) Evidence from this project show that the Fremont Indians of Utah (ca. 700-1200 A.D.) had sophisticated astronomy and calendars-related to that at Izapa, Mexico (ca. 500 BC to 1000 AD). The spectacular sunsets on August 12 and April 29 highlight the  petroglyph calendar (ca.700 AD) which correlates with ancient and sacred Maya 260-day calendar of Mesoamerica. Garth Norman has spent 50 years researching the ancient site of Izapa (ca. 500 BC) in southern Mexico and was intrigued to find that later regions created similar “temple centers” plus what is known today as the Parowan Gap, So. Utah  (700 AD). These ancient  “astronomers” recorded sun solstices and calendar systems that are recorded on hundreds of petroglyphs on the Gap cliffs that interact with an extensive observatory system composed of over 25 stations where sunsets and sunrises were viewed through the Gap Narrows to mark key dates. (Book at: www.amazon.com)

                                Garth & Cheryl Norman: Summer Solstice Sunset-06/21/2019

Lincoln Clifford + 3 sons, Lincoln John, Ben & Nick (right) climbed the south cliff wall and took a picture of a petroglyph high up on ledge (left).

Dixie Clifford  family: Lincoln & 3 sons, Kathleen & Dixie, Cristi & husband (right) at the Parowan Gap-June 20, 2020 Summer Solstice sunset.

June 20, 2020: Spencer Kraus, Cheryl       Garth Norman at V-Lobe glyph.    Norman, Garth Norman, Nathan Davies.

The picture above was taken by Lincoln John Clifford from the top of the north peak he climbed at the Parowan Gap on June 20, 2020.

MAJOR MIGRATIONS: FLORIDA, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY, GREAT LAKES = 900 AD AT TIME OF DROUGHT IN CENTRAL AMERICAMap in Crystal River, Florida Museum 2014

Cahokia, Illinois (above) was built at 1050 AD.

Dr. Timothy Pauketat, Anthropology Professor (U of Ill.), the leading scholar on Cahokia states: “Cahokia was ancient America’s one true city north of Mexico–as large in its day as London–& the political capital of a most unusual Indian nation”. 

OHIO SERPENT MOUND was built at 1070 AD

MIGRATIONS FROM OTHER NATIONS

Other people came to the Americas from Asian, Mongolian and Middle Eastern countries propelled by ocean and wind currents as well as crossing land bridges.