POLLEN, STARCH, AND ORGANIC RESIDUE (FTIR) ANALYSIS OF SAMPLES FROM SITE 48CR8818, CARBON COUNTY, WYOMING

Summary

Site 48CR8818 represents an Early Archaic housepit with three subfloor thermal basins.

Radiocarbon dates indicate this housepit was occupied between approximately 5600 and 5850

radiocarbon years BP. One modern and one stratigraphic sample were submitted for pollen

analysis and an additional stratigraphic sample was examined for both pollen and starch.

Pollen analysis was undertaken to describe the vegetation communities before and at the time

of occupation, while starch analysis was added at the point starch was observed in one of the

stratigraphic samples. Fill samples from each thermal basin within the house pit also were

submitted for organic residue analysis. Samples were tested for organic residues using Fourier

Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). FTIR analysis identifies compounds that were

extracted from the fill samples and matches the spectral signatures obtained with our reference

library of raw and processed plants. Information concerning foods that might have been

processed in association with thermal features is derived from those matches.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• PaleoResearch Institute

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