Osteometric sex determination of burned human skeletal remains

Sex determination of human skeletal and dental remains is a very important step in palaeodemographic reconstructions. This information can be easily obtained if skeletons are complete and well preserved, but problems arise when the sample contains fragmented and/or commingled remains. In these cases alternative methodological procedures must be achieved, taking into account the population-specific variability in sexual dimorphism and the degree of robustness of the skeletal sample. In this chapter an unconventional methodology applied to a sample of removed human remains from the Chenque I site (Lihué Calel National Park, La Pampa province, Western Pampean Region, Argentina) is described and analyzed. This site is a prehistoric cemetery used by hunter-gatherer societies during the Final Late Holocene, throughout 700 years. It has two clearly defined units with very different characteristics. The Superior Unit (0-30 cm depth) contains thousands of bony and dental remains with different degrees of fragmentation, comminglement, arrangement and anatomic association. In the Inferior Unit (below 30 cm) 42 burials were detected, many of them associated with subsuperficial stone structures. To this moment a preliminary MNI of 216 was estimated.

The accuracy of the sex determination of cremated human remains is one of the vital parameters for archaeologists and skeletal anthropologists dealing with cremations. Few studies have so far aimed at testing it. In the present paper, the accuracy of the sexing techniques was assessed by paralleling biological sex (identified morphologically) to gender (presumed on the basis of the grave goods which accompanied the deceased). A collection of cremated bones from East Lithuanian barrows (c. fourth/fifth – eleventh/twelfth centuries AD) was employed. The fragmentary nature and poor state of the bones generally represents cremains from similar archaeological contexts. The database inevitably underwent several stages of filtration. Out of 364 cremations with a minimum of 445 individuals, only 157 were sexed single adult burials, of which only 81 had "gender-related" grave goods. The relationship of artefact type to gender was defined statistically, revising the results in line with the chronological and typological differences and the probable symbolism of the grave goods. Sex and gender coincided in 56 cases (69.14%), but a considerable distance between the results for both sexes was observed. Biological females displayed a fairly high match level, i.e. 35 out of the 41 (85.37%) individuals osteologically identified as females had been given "feminine" items. The burials of biological males, on the other hand, yielded a surprisingly low match rate, i.e. only 21 out of 40 (52.50%). This disparity suggests a possible misinterpretation of grave goods as gender markers, rather than (only?) erroneous sexing. It is thus argued that for females, the mean value for the accuracy of sexing is 85.5%. In most cases, such precision is entirely satisfactory for the analysis of a poorly-preserved osteological material. For males, however, the accuracy is likely to fall somewhere in the range between 52.5 and 85.5%, with the applied methodology so far failing to contribute to higher precision.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2019

Sex diagnosis is a crucial element in the analysis of skeletal remains from forensic and archaeological contexts. Thus, researchers have developed several methods using different anatomical regions to estimate sex. Despite such variety of methods, sexing of collective cremated human skeletal remains is still challenging due to heatinduced size changes and fragmentation, along with the typical commingling of collective contexts. This study aims to examine the potential of burned tooth crowns for odontometric sex estimation. To that end, heat-induced size changes were quantified in experimentally burned teeth. Then, odontometric sex estimation was performed in a set of theoretical samples of pre and post-burned tooth crowns. Results show burned tooth crowns undergo variable but consistent and statistically significant expansion, which is due to micro-fracturing. Such heat induced size changes are of sufficient magnitude to impact odontometric sex diagnosis and sex ratios of the theoretical samples. Yet, sexing using burned tooth crowns may still be useful to estimate the minimum number of females in a given sample. Further, the effect of heat-induced size changes may be calculated and removed using scanning.

2020

Introduction: The ability to determine sex from unknown skeletal remains vital, and methods to do it on various bones of the human skeleton have been researched extensively. The present work consists in the analysis of coxal bones belonging to the victims of the 1755 Lisbon’s Earthquake. Aims: This project aims the characterization of the population whose skeletal remains were found in the Cloister’s South Wing of Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa in 2004. Materials and Methods: In order to achieve the final objective, six measurements were taken, in anatomic position, and seven indices were calculated. Furthermore, morphological characteristics were observed through four different methods. These procedures were applied to a total number of 129 coxal bones. Results: From measurements and indices, the best results found were 16 females and 5 males, but the overall results were not reliable, since there was no consensus between the different measurements and so the majority of the coxal...

2013

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the lateral angle (LA) method—based on the measurement of the angle at which the internal acoustic canal opens up to the surface of the petrous bone—for sex determination in cremated skeletal remains of Italians. The sample consisted of 160 adult individuals of known age and sex who had recently died and were cremated in the crematorium of Ferrara (northern Italy). Several studies have demonstrated that the petrous portion of the temporal bone may be a valuable tool for sex diagnosis in unburned skeletal remains. Since petrous bones are usually preserved after cremation, this method could be of particular interest in the case of burned skeletal remains. The repeatability of intra- and inter-observer measurements was good. The results indicated that male and female lateral angles were significantly different but that the values did not differ among age-groups. There was no bilateral difference in LA. However, neither the 45° angle, proposed in earlier studies as the sectioning point for this variable from male and female data distributions, nor another angular value allowed satisfactory discrimination between the sexes in our sample. The influence of the “age” factor (about 82 % of females were of ≥75 years of age) on the results is critically discussed. The results of this study suggest that the LA method is not sufficiently reliable to assess the sex of elderly Italian individuals from their burned remains and thus should only be used in conjunction with other sexing techniques.

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2007

Determining sex is one of the most important steps in the procedure of identification of the unknown person. Teeth are a potential source of information on sex.

Forensic science international, 2008

Although the assignment of sex to immature skeletal remains is considered problematic, some traits have been considered useful for both forensic and bioarchaeological applications. One such trait is the arch criterion found in subadult ilia, which is defined relative to the greater sciatic notch-auricular surface area. In adults, the composite arch has also been described in relation to this area and has proven relatively successful in sex determination. This study offers an examination of the accuracy of the arch criterion and the composite arch in determining the sex of subadult skeletal remains, and an assessment of intra-and inter-observer scoring error. A sample of 97 skeletons of known sex and age (<15 years) from the Lisbon collection (Portugal) were selected and the traits were scored by three observers on orthogonal photos of each ilium. In general the agreement within (67.7-88.5%) and between (50.5-76.3%) examiners was poor and overall accuracy (26.7-52.6%) did not meet the expectations of that reported in previous studies. The authors suggest that this derives from great variation in morphology, difficulties in interpreting criteria and possibly a lack of association between the expression of the traits and sex. Careful examination of sex-related morphology in the immature skeleton and additional blind tests of so-called useful traits should continue to be carried out. #

Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2020

The femur has been commonly employed for sex determination of human skeletal remains, and it is a suitable alternative to the more sexually dimorphic pelvis when this skeletal region is incomplete or fragmented. The purposes of this study include the evaluation of femoral sexual dimorphism and the generation of specific metric standards for the estimation of sex with the femur in skeletal Brazilian populations. Two hundred femora (130 males and 70 females) of known age at death, sex, and ancestry were used to generate the models for sex prediction. The best estimators of sex were univariable models, including the biomechanical neck length (BNLF, accuracy under cross-validation: 82.5%), the vertical head diameter (VHDL, accuracy under cross-validation: 81.5%), the transverse head diameter (THDF, accuracy under cross-validation: 84.5%), and the epicondylar breadth (EBF, accuracy under cross-validation: 84.5%). In conclusion, a comprehensive anatomical study of the femur in a reference skeletal sample from Brazil was provided, and the value of univariable sex estimators (BNLF, VHDL, THDF and EBF) was established.

Anthropological Review 85(1):63-75, 2022

Research of cremated human remains are limited by severe analytical constraints. Estimation of basic anthropological parameters such as sex of individuals or their age at death is often uncertain. A method for assessing the sex of cremated individuals measures the lateral angle of the petrous part (PP) of the temporal bone, known as the lateral angle (LA) method. In the cemetery of the Lusatian culture in Czernikowice (51.317389°N, 15.871469°E), 6 well-preserved PP were identified. The analyzed PP belonged to 6 different individuals: 3 adults and 3 children. Based on standard anthropological methods, sex was estimated for adults individuals: 2 males and 1 female. The identified PP served as the basis for application of the LA method. The bones were scanned by computed tomography (CT) and the tomographic imaging allowed measurement of the lateral angle. The absolute values of intra-observer errors did not exceed 1°. Relative technical errors of measurements (rTEM) fell in the range below 5%, which is indicative of their high precision. Individuals for which the LA value was greater than or equal to 45.0° were qualified as females and those for which it was less than 45.0°-as males. The LA values for female individuals ranged from 48.0 to 49.1°, (average 48.5±0.78°, median 48.4°) and for male individuals were in the range of 24.9-37.5° (average 33.4±5.80°, median 35.5°). The absolute difference between the average values for female and male individuals was considerable (15.1°) and statistically significant (p < 0.001). The LA method provides good reliability of measurements when it comes to this analysis with regard to cremated osteological material, and the use of non-invasive CT enhances its value in the context of archaeological remains. However, its capability for sexing subadult individuals should be approached with caution and requires further research.

Sexual estimation of human remains is an aspect of great importance for the characterization of demographic profiles in bioarcheology and to identify individuals in forensic cases. The aims of this paper are threefold: to generate population-specific formulae for sex estimation based on permanent canine metrics, to evaluate the dental sexual dimorphism, and to develop a Bayesian approach in a sample of 115 individuals from the documented human sample housed in the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Discriminant functions and logistic regression equations were developed, and posterior probabilities were calculated. Formulae offered high percentages of correct sex assignation (77.42-86.54% for the discriminant functions and 81.63-85.18% for the logistic regression), whereas posterior probabilities ranged between 0.71 and 0.85. The procedures were then applied in an archaeological sample of 32 individuals from the Roman (I-III century AC) cemetery of Ossonoba Romana (Faro, Portugal) in order to test the relevance of their use in this geographical-related sample. The results of correct estimation are higher than 75% for three formulae and four combinations of variables in the Bayesian approach. Although phenotypic variation may be a factor influencing the sex estimations, canine odontometrics are powerful tools when previously tested and can increase the amount of data obtained for paleodemographic and forensic purposes. In this case, some of the methods developed for the modern sample can be used in archaeological samples and in spatial and temporal-related skeletal collections.

Forensic Science International, 2016

Sexual estimation is fundamental to reconstruct the biological profile of individuals, but postdepositional factors can alter the resistance of the bones, thereby preventing accurate diagnosis especially when the skull and the pelvis are absent. Navicular bones are usually well preserved in archeological and forensic contexts and can a good alternative to discriminate sex. On the basis of these aspects, the present investigation analyzed the sexual dimorphism in 231 pairs of navicular bones from documented contemporary collections from Spain. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and binary logistic regressions were carried out in eight replicable linear measurements of the navicular bone. Each of the eight variables showed a significant sexual dimorphism in our sample. The ROC curve results indicate that at least five out of the eight variables used have high ability for sex diagnosis, among which the maximum length of the cuneiform surface (LMAXCUN) showed a better performance (area under the curve value = 0.86). Moreover, we introduced regression equations with combination of measurements that correctly allocated the skeletons with 80% or greater accuracy. The equation with high allocation accuracy rate (83.4%) included a combination of the maximum height of the navicular (HMAX), maximum length of the cuneiform surface (LMAXCUN), and maximum length of the talar facet (LMAXTAL). The regression equations presented here are useful for the Western Mediterranean populations and offer better alternatives than formulas based on other population groups.

Bollettino della Società italiana di biologia sperimentale, 2017

Sex determination is a vital part of the analysis of skeletal remains and the creation of biological profiles that aid in identification. The pelvis and skull are the regions usually employed by anthropologists and produce very good results. However, the mandible, being a very durable bone and frequently preserved has not received the attention that other skeletal elements have. There are some morphological methods for sexing the mandible, however metrics are considered to be more objective and easier to replicate. This study uses the measurements of the bimental breadth and the corpus thickness of the mandible. Univariate and multivariate analysis was carried out to create discriminant function equations. These equations can be used to sex a mandible with overall accuracy rates as high as 77.3%. The results of the present research are similar to those of other studies and indicate that mandibular metrics can be relied upon for sex determination, especially in cases where other elem...

2014

"Recent forensic studies have shown that the hyoid bone is a sexually dimorphic element of the human skeleton. Given the advanced techniques of collecting human remains in archeological and forensic contexts, the recovery of hyoid bones is now more frequent in skeletal samples. For that reason the authors propose a new method for estimating sex based on hyoid bodies from archeological sites. The study has been conducted on well-preserved hyoids of skeletal remains of 64 adult individuals (44 males and 20 females) dated from the pre-Roman to the medieval periods. The authors considered 10 linear measurements of the hyoid body. The most significant measurements showing sexual dimorphism are the body height, body length, and the maximum and minimum diameter of the articular facet for the greater horn. Discriminant function analysis achieved the allocation accuracy between 75.0% and 88.0%, depending on the measurement collected. This method represents a new, useful and easy way for increasing biological information when assessing the sex of adult human remains from an archeological sample."

La Revue de Médecine Légale, 2017

Anthropological Review

Several studies have shown that sex estimation methods based on measurements of the skeleton are specific to populations. Metric traits of the upper long bones have been reported as reliable indicators of sex. This study was designed to determine whether the four long bones can be used for the sex estimation of an historical skeletal population from Radom (Poland). The material used consists of the bones of 169 adult individuals (including 103 males and 66 females) from the 18th and 19th centuries. Twelve measurements were recovered from clavicle, humerus, radius and ulna. The initial comparison of males and females indicated significant differences in all measurements (p &lt; 0.0001). The accuracy of sex estimation ranged from 68% to 84%. The best predictor for sex estimation of all the measurements in Radom’s population was the maximum length of the radius (84%), and the ulna (83%), and the vertical diameter of the humeral head (83%). The Generalized Linear Model (GLM) detected th...