The project was funded by a research grant to Samantha M. Hens from the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, California State University, Sacramento.
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Age Estimation from the Human Os Coxa: A Test on a Documented Italian Collection†
Article first published online: 14 JUL 2008
DOI: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00818.x
© 2008 American Academy of Forensic Sciences
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How to Cite
Hens, S. M., Rastelli, E. and Belcastro, G. (2008), Age Estimation from the Human Os Coxa: A Test on a Documented Italian Collection. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 53: 1040–1043. doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00818.x
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Publication History
- Issue published online: 28 AUG 2008
- Article first published online: 14 JUL 2008
- Received 10 June 2007; and in revised form 30 Dec. 2007; accepted 5 Jan. 2008.
- Abstract
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Keywords:
- forensic science;
- forensic anthropology;
- skeletal age estimation;
- pubic symphysis;
- auricular surface
Abstract: Current standards for age at death estimation from the pelvis are based on Americans of European and African ancestry. Our limited understanding of population variability hampers our efforts to apply these techniques to the various skeletal populations around the world, especially in global forensic contexts. However, documented skeletal samples are rare, limiting our ability to test our techniques. This study tested the Suchey-Brooks pubic symphysis aging method and the auricular surface method originally developed by Lovejoy et al. on a large sample (n = 404) of known sex and age from the Sassari Collection, housed at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Bologna, Italy. The results indicate that for both methods, bias and inaccuracy increased with age and actual age tended to be underestimated over the age of 40. The auricular surface method performed slightly better, exhibiting slightly lower levels of bias and inaccuracy, especially for males.