Interpretation
Mesoamerican researchers identify the central image as a Mesoamerican world tree, connecting the sky above and the water or underworld below.
Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller 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".
Read more about this topic: Izapa Stela 5