New England Antiquities Research Association

 

Archeologist Finds Treasure of a Lifetime

Reprinted from the Portsmouth Herald

 

 

 

December 14, 2003

 

Rock stars shoot for the cover of the Rolling Stone.

University of New Hampshire archaeologist William Saturno will grace the pages of the December 2003 edition of the adventurous full-color journal - his second time in his two years since discovering a 2,000-year-old Maya mural in Guatemala.

Saturno, now 34, discovered the oldest known intact wall painting of Maya mythology while hiding from the hot sun during a dig in San Bartolo.

He was tired. He was dehydrated. He thought he was going to die in that jungle, in fact, when lo and behold, he shined his flashlight up in the cave and saw a piece of the mythological puzzle that another scientist has dubbed the "Sistine Chapel" of the pre-Classic Maya world.

"It just struck me as silly at the time. Sitting in the dark after two days. Sitting in bat droppings, in fact, thinking, ‘I’m an idiot first of all. Hardheaded. We should have turned around,’" he said, referring to the first expedition to the site for which the crew was unprepared and ran out of food and water.

"I thought, ‘I am going to die here.’ Then I shined the flashlight on the wall and there was this mural ... I laughed because it was ridiculous ... I thought someone up there must be messing with me because just before you die, you make this discovery," Saturno said.

He knew by looking at the style of the mural that it was more ancient and the figures were reminiscent of contemporary sculptures of the same time period.

"It was obvious how early it was ... I thought here I was, literally, I made the discovery of a lifetime, but I’m in the middle of nowhere with no food or water."

Obviously, he made it out alive and returned last spring to chip away at the rubble packed around the mural that portrays the corn God’s journey from the underworld to Earth - the tale of creation.

"Imagine you didn’t know the Sistine Chapel existed or that Christianity existed that long ago," he said. "Then one day you poke through the roof and see the finger of God touching the finger of Adam. What we’ve found is the Sistine Chapel of the pre-Classic Maya world," he said.

The "Sistine Chapel" analogy is attributed to project iconographer Karl Taube of the University of California, Riverside. But the analogy is on target.

"Here it is in Technicolor on the wall, creation mythology. The more I think about it, the more he really nailed it. It’s that moment we’re seeing, a representation 2000 years old of a moment of time they thought was important," he said.

Saturno waited two years before returning this past March to begin the tricky task of uncovering other pieces of the mural. The mural is in a small temple that was added, onion-layer style, over the back of a pyramid. He credits the mural’s excellent condition to the care the Mayans had taken in sealing up the room, covering the art with layers of mud topped with a layer of rubble. The room remained sealed off from the elements for almost 2,000 years, until looters punched through the wall in recent years. The looters presumable were looking for ancient pottery they could sell on the black market, he said.

The mural appears to wrap around the entire room. One part depicts the creation myth; another section depicts a man becoming a king. Between the scenes, however, lies eight meters of unexcavated wall space.

Digging was halted until this past March to allow researchers to take readings on humidity, and other factors that may affect preservation of the mural.

"We needed a baseline so we could do this the best way possible," he added.

Saturno said he’s eager to return to Guatemala with his wife and two young sons. He will spend January to August 2004 working on the mural project and return to UNH in the fall.

"I’m itching to go back," he said. "I think about it every day. For every question I answer, there are five more," he said.

As for his appearance this month in National Geographic, Saturno said this is nothing compared with the initial discovery in 2001.

Back then, he made the cover of The New York Times and every major news outlet in the nation, including the Discovery Channel. But it will be far from his last television appearance. National Geographic is producing a program for public television called "Maya Dawn," expected to air this spring. The program includes the mural project.

The countdown is on for Saturno’s return to Guatemala. This time, though, he’ll be more prepared. The site itself is protected round-the-clock by a security team and a road has been cut through the jungle. There is a permanent water supply.

"It’s now established as a place on a map," he said. Plus, this trip he’ll have company. A team of UNH students will join him as part of a new study abroad program approved this month.

"Our trip back in January can’t come soon enough."

 

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