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Yellow Ochre
(Limonite) Carvings
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Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic
figures, a few of many in this material.
Worked chunks of yellow
ochre (Fe2O3 • H2O, hydrated
iron oxide) appear frequently at the site, well removed from the
geological context in which this material naturally occurs. The
photo below shows a horizontally and vertically (lower) distant location
at the site where the ochre appears naturally as a mass or nodules
within highly ferrous red clay and associated with hematite rock.
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The worked ochre appears randomly
at the site, but in particular at one location on the northwest
slope of the knob roughly half a meter (20") beneath the
terrain surface (photo below), in soil within which this material
simply does not occur naturally. (Several hairs professionally verified as human also appeared buried in this immediate
area, unfortunately with no surviving DNA.)
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Yellow ochre is
light, porous, and easily pulverized, and has been used for many
thousands of years as a bright and durable coloring agent.
This seems to be present in powdered form on some of the harder
stone artifacts at the site, but spectroscopic analysis will be
required to determine this with certainty. |
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