Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Characterization Of A Black Coating Overlying Rock Paintings Found In Little Lost River Cave, Idaho Using Thm-Gc-Ms, Jamie Brown-Sinha

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A black coating overlies rock paintings found within Little Lost Rive Cave, Idaho. A calibrated radiocarbon date of 1390-1040 B.C. was obtained by Steelman et al.1 However, this relies on the assumption that the black coating was formed by some human activity. For further characterization and to verify that the coating is anthropogenic, THM-GC-MS was performed on various samples collected throughout the cave, including soil samples from inside, outside, and above the cave. Humic and fulvic acids, synthetic and natural melanin, and experimentally created cooking residues were also analyzed as standard materials. By comparing the resulting chromatograms and the compounds …