Abstract
It has been shown that the compound-specific amino acid analysis of nitrogen isotopic values in biological samples is quite useful for reconstructing food-web structures in aquatic ecosystems. However, very little research has been applied to archaeological and terrestrial ecosystems because there is not yet enough knowledge regarding terrestrial ecological settings. On the other hand, the biological proteins in excavated bones are generally stable over long periods with respect to their chemical structure so that application to paleoecosystems using amino acid analysis may be possible. In this study, we apply this method to human and animal remains of deer, fur seal and oyster in order to evaluate the validity of the method. We sampled human bone recovered from the Kitakogane site from the late Jomon period (ca. 5200-5700 BP) in Hokkaido Japan who relied on terrestrial and marine mammals for their subsistence. Moreover, we evaluated the dietary habits of humans quantitatively by measuring the nitrogen isotopic values of specific amino acids.