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

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.