Art and Iconography 3

This post is a continuation of the theme developed in the articles "Art and Iconography 1" and "Art and Iconography 2." The tree of life as a type of Christ and a tree as a symbol of the house of Israel are important themes in the Book of Mormon. This article will explore the complex iconography of Izapa Stela 5 and compare it with details in the Book of Mormon. First, though, since Izapa Stela 5 has proven controversial within Book of Mormon studies circles, we need to document the accuracy of our images.

Izapa Stela 5 1941 Matthew W. Stirling Expedition Photo

The original of the image above is a large format black and white print of a photo taken on the 1941 Matthew W. Stirling National Geographic - Smithsonian expedition that discovered Stela 5 in situ in the Izapa Group A plaza. The large stone at this point was freshly dug out of the ground. Stirling himself gave this print to BYU Professor M. Wells Jakeman in 1961 and it lay in his (Jakeman's) files for decades. Notice the crease marks where the paper was folded. When Jakeman died in 1998, his papers passed to V. Garth Norman and Bruce W. Warren of Ancient America Foundation (AAF), successor to Jakeman's Society for Early Historic Archaeology (SEHA). I (Kirk Magleby) took this digital image of the print at Garth Norman's home in American Fork, Utah on October 3, 2011. I used it once before in the article entitled "V Garth Norman in Mexico City."

Stirling's Note Explaining his Gift to Jakeman

This is the image Stirling published in 1943.

Izapa Stela 5 Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 138 Plate 52

This is the image with tracing Garth Norman published in 1973.

Izapa Stela 5 New World Archaeological Foundation Paper No. 30 Part 1 Plate 10

And this is an RTI (Reflective Transformation Imaging) photo Jason Jones made in 2012 as part of the Izapa 3D digital imaging project. See the article "Imaging Izapa."

Izapa Stela 5 RTI Image Norman, Izapa Sacred Space: Sculpture Calendar Codex p. 272