William Saturno
Assistant Professor of Archaeology

Education: B.A. (1991) from the University of Arizona and his A.M. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000) from Harvard University.

Research Interests: Specializing in New World archaeology
and Mesoamerican civilization.

Excavations and Fieldwork: Southwestern United States, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and most recently Guatemala. From 1994 to 2000 he was the Field Director of the Río Amarillo Archaeological Project in Western Honduras, examining the ancient sociopolitical relationships between large and small Maya cities around the site of Copán. In March 2001, while exploring in northeastern Guatemala for Harvard's Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology, he discovered the remote archaeological site of San Bartolo and the oldest intact murals ever found in the Maya world. Since then he has directed the San Bartolo Regional Archaeology Project dedicated to the excavation and conservation of these spectacular murals and to understanding San Bartolo’s role in this largely unexplored region of the Maya area during the period when Maya civilization itself was just forming. His academic interests include the evolution of complex society,
particularly among the Ancient Maya, Mesoamerican religion, iconography and epigraphy, remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications in archaeology and the role of archaeology in popular culture.