| Garapan, a Latte Period (A.D. 1000-1521) archaeological site in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, was excavated by Scientific Consultant Services, Hawaii in 2015. The recovery produced over 400 sets of skeletal remains, of which 48 bone elements from 25 individuals were submitted for dietary bioarchaeological analysis in the Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy at Idaho State University. This research focuses on the importance of marine versus terrestrial protein sources and introduced plant cultigens to investigate possible cultural affiliation via diet at Garapan. A stepwise methodology is employed to identify dietary patterns, including the evaluation of bone preservation using ATR-FTIR, and extraction and analysis of collagen and carbonate stable isotopes. Using this combined approach, I present our bioarchaeological dietary assessment and offer insight into how this step-wise method for investigating diet in archeological samples provides additional data points for understanding subsistence strategies and patterns in Micronesia. ATR-FTIR data suggests that it is a workable tool for assessing diagenesis in archaeological samples when compared to modern samples. Within these data, Am/P show the largest distinction between the two. Stable isotope analysis revealed a primarily terrestrial diet with a small influence from marine protein sources. When compared to other analysis of Latte Period archeological samples from Garapan (Ambrose et al. 1997), there appears to be a difference in both protein and whole diet content. Additional research is required in order to determine possible causes for these inconsistencies.
Key words: Diet; Diagenesis; FTIR-ATR; Stable Isotope Analysis; Saipan; Micronesia |