FTIR Spectra of Degraded Spruce Resin-Beeswax Adhesives from a 3-Year Burial Experiment

Lauren Lien's dataset contains reflectance-mode FTIR spectroscopy results from a 3-year burial experiment tracking the chemical degradation of spruce resin-beeswax adhesive mixtures. The data, published on figshare in 2026, documents chemical changes across nine specimens recovered from cave, loess, sandy, forested, and surface contexts, using pristine materials as baselines.

Use Cases

• Modeling chemical degradation trajectories of organic adhesives based on FTIR spectral data.
• Comparing spectral resilience of beeswax versus spruce resin components based on the described experimental results.
• Developing non-deterministic interpretive frameworks for archaeological residues based on taphonomic variability patterns.
• Exploring environment-associated patterning in spectral data using principal component analysis (PCA) methods mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a controlled 3-year burial experiment, providing a temporal baseline.
• Includes results from nine specimens across five distinct environmental contexts (cave, loess, sandy, forested, surface).
• Uses pristine reference materials as a baseline for measuring chemical change.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description notes PCA results are sensitive to data treatment and risk overfitting given the available data scope.

Provenance

Source

Lauren Lien via figshare

Collection Method

Reflectance-mode Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) applied to specimens from a controlled burial experiment.

Time Range

Covers a 3-year experimental period.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 05:28:47; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Specimens were buried in various contexts, but specific geographic locations are not provided.