Sex estimation of skeletons in middle and late adulthood: reliability of pelvic morphological traits and long bone metrics on an Italian skeletal collection

Nonmetric sex estimation in a contemporary Indonesian population: a validation study using clinical pelvic MSCT scans

Klales et al. (2012) is a popular standard for the estimation of skeletal sex. Since its publication, a number of studies have demonstrated that population-specific applications of Klales improve classification accuracy. However, it has also been shown that age appears to affect the expression of dimorphism in the pelvis across the lifespan. As such, the present study examines the accuracy of Klales, and the modified global standard of Kenyhercz et al. (2017), in a contemporary Indonesian population, including quantifying the effect of age. Pelvic multi-slice CT scans of 378 individuals (213 female; 165 male) were analysed in OsiriX®. Both standards were tested and Indonesian-specific models thereafter derived.When applied to the Indonesian sample, both the Klales and Kenyhercz standards resulted in lower classification accuracy relative to the original studies. In considering the Indonesian-specific models, the ventral arc was the most accurate for the classification of sex, at 93.3% with a - 3.0% sex bias. The accuracy of the three-trait model was 94.4%, with a - 5.5% sex bias. Age was shown to significantly affect the distribution of pelvic trait scores. As such, age-dependent models were also derived, with the standard for individuals between 30 and 49 years the most accurate, at 93.1% and a sex bias of - 4.0%. Accuracy was lower in individuals aged ≥ 50 years, at 91.3% and a sex bias of 4.1%. These findings support the importance of establishing population-specific standards and to facilitate improved accuracy and capabilities for forensic practitioners in Indonesia.

Dental diseases and dental wear as a proxy for dietary patterns in Hellenistic-early Roman Menainon, Sicily

OBJECTIVE

This paper explores dental diseases and wear as a proxy for dietary patterns in Hellenistic-early Roman Menainon.

MATERIALS

This study includes 166 individuals (4th-1st c. BCE).

METHODS

Carious lesions, dental calculus, antemortem tooth loss, and dental wear were recorded to explore male-female and adult-juvenile differences, and to position Menainon in the broader Hellenistic/early Roman world through comparisons with published data from other sites.

RESULTS

Males and females showed similar rates of dental diseases. Dental wear, in contrast, was systematically greater in males. Caries rates were high in both adults and juveniles, but adults showed more calculus. The population from Menainon had higher frequencies for calculus and carious lesions compared to contemporary Italian and Greek assemblages, and a similar frequency for antemortem tooth loss.

CONCLUSION

Some sex-related differences in the dietary patterns of the Menainon population were visible but small. The diet of adults and juveniles must have been similar in terms of carbohydrate consumption but different with regard to protein consumption. The high frequency of carious lesions and calculus compared to other Greco-Roman sites suggests that this population must have had good access to dietary resources (protein and carbohydrates).

SIGNIFICANCE

This paper provides insights on gender (sex-related) and age divisions in the Hellenistic/early Roman society through the exploration of food consumption in a Sicilian assemblage.

LIMITATIONS

Dividing the assemblage by sex and age group reduced considerably the sample size.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Stable isotopes and dental microwear analyses should be used to investigate dietary patterns further.

Sex assessment from the pelvis: a test of the Phenice (1969) and Klales et al. (2012) methods

Sex assessment is one of the first steps of routine forensic anthropological examinations and it provides a crucial element to identify a set of human skeletal remains. In bioarchaeological contexts, this assessment is also important, as it helps in the reconstruction of past societies. Sex determination can be achieved by using several morphological or metric traits of the skull and postcranial skeleton, which have been found to have varying degrees of accuracy. In 1969 Phenice proposed a methodology focusing on three traits located on the pubis. These traits were described as either having a female or male morphology with ambiguity being rare. Phenice's method became regularly utilized as it was considered to be reliable. In 2012, Klales and colleagues published a revision of Phenice's method, as they found that it did not capture the variation in the expression of the three traits. Klales and co-authors created a visual ordinal scale of 1-5 for each of the three traits Phenice originally identified, thus adding three extra possible forms of expression. The purpose of the present research was to test both the original and revised methodologies on the same skeletal population in order to evaluate their suitability for the assessment of sex. The Luís Lopes Anthropological collection in Lisbon was used; 117 males and 117 females were scored using both methodologies. The results showed that the original method performed better (96.5% accuracy) than the revised method (92.7%).

Testing the validity of population-specific sex estimation equations: An evaluation based on talus and patella measurements

Sex estimation is essential for forensic scientists to identify human skeletal remains. However, the most sexually dimorphic elements like pelvis or skull are not always assessable. Osteometric analyses have proven useful in sex estimation, but also to be population specific. The main purpose of this study was to test the validity of contemporary Greek and Spanish discriminant functions for the talus and the patella, respectively, on a Swiss skeletal sample and to quantify the utility of the measurements as a novel approach in osteometric sex assessment. Four talus and three patella measurements on dry bone were obtained from 234 individuals of the modern cemetery SIMON Identified Skeletal Collection. The previously derived discriminant functions were applied, accuracies determined, the utility of the different measurements was assessed and new multivariable equations constructed. Accuracies varied between 67% and 86% for talus and 63% and 84% for patella, similar to those reported by the original studies. Multivariable equations should be preferred over equations based on single measurements and combining the most significant measurements rather than using several variables obtained the best possible accuracy. The new discriminant functions did not provide a substantial improvement to the original ones. The overall utility of talus and patella is limited, allowing sex estimation with sufficient certainty only in a small proportion of individuals. Discriminant functions developed in contemporary Greek or Spanish populations are in principle applicable also to Swiss contemporary populations. We recommend that at present existent studies of this type should be validated and tested rather than developing new formulas.

Coronal and sagittal suture lengths as novel measurements for sex identification in a sample from the Egyptian population

Sex estimation from isolated or fragmented bones is a cornerstone in medicolegal identification. The current study aimed to estimate sex from the lengths of the coronal and sagittal sutures in a sample of Egyptians. The study was performed on a total of 80 adult cadavers (48 males and 32 females) during a routine autopsy. After exposure of the skull vault, the lengths of the coronal and sagittal sutures were measured using a thread and a graduated scale. The mean length of the coronal suture was significantly higher in males (24.8 ± 1.4 cm) than in females (22.7 ± 1.4 cm). The mean length of the sagittal suture was significantly higher in males (11.9±1.6 cm) than in females (10.8±1.6 cm). This study used the lengths of the coronal and sagittal sutures as measurements for sex estimation for the first time. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that the combined coronal and sagittal sutures lengths were the best sex discriminator (AUC= 0.859), followed by the coronal suture length (AUC= 0.855), and sagittal suture length (AUC= 0.697). Moreover, regression analysis was performed for sex determination; the highest accuracy was obtained by an equation that included the lengths of the coronal and sagittal sutures together (76%); followed by the coronal suture length (75%); then the sagittal suture length (71%). These measurements are easily obtained during a conventional autopsy and this method of sex estimation is cost effective when compared to radiological and DNA analysis. Moreover, the measurements can be carried out on dry skulls as long as the vault has identifiable landmarks.