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Characterization Of Black Deposit Associated With Rock Paintings In Little Lost River Cave, Idaho Using Pyrolysis Gc, Sarah Therese Fezzey
Characterization Of Black Deposit Associated With Rock Paintings In Little Lost River Cave, Idaho Using Pyrolysis Gc, Sarah Therese Fezzey
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
A black, shiny coating overlies rock paintings in Little Lost River Cave no. 1, located in southeastern Idaho. If this coating is the result of human activity within the cave – a condensate from cooking fires, for example – then a radiocarbon date on the coating would provide a minimum age for the underlying paintings. The work reported here was undertaken to test the assumption that the coating has an anthropomorphic origin. Using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (py-GC-MS) and thermally-assisted hydrolysis/methylation-GC-MS, we have compared samples of the black coating from Idaho to humic acid, a geologic material; an experimental cooking residue; …