A Test of Several Methods of Skeletal Age Estimation using a Documented Archaeological Sample

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study presents the results of blind tests of four morphological methods of adult age at death estimation from the human skeleton as well as a statistical technique for combining multiple age indicators, carried out on personally identified skeletons from a nineteenth century Canadian pioneer cemetery. Sample sizes for the four methods ranged from 27 to 49 individuals. Personal identification of skeletons was based on legible coffin plates checked against complete parish registers available for the entire tenure of the cemetery. All four methods presented disparate problems of application most common of whiQh was increasing bias and inaccuracy with increasing age. Other difficulties include sampling inadequacies and considerable variability inherent in the original standards. The multifactorial aging approach as a means of consolidating age estimates from a variety of methods fared no better than simple averaging of age estimates. The authors recommend the use of a variety of age estimation me...