Molar crown height as a means of evaluating existing dental wear scales for estimating age at death in human skeletal remains

Abstract

This study uses molar tooth crown heights of skeletons excavated from Poundbury cemetery, Dorset in order to evaluate Brothwell's (1963) system for scoring molar wear for age estimation in adult skeletons from archaeological sites. Among the juveniles a highly significant relationship was found between crown height and dental age, confirming the utility of crown height in the study of individual age at death. In the group as a whole, wear (as measured by crown height) on teeth which are occlusal partners is strongly correlated, hence information loss by considering only upper or lower teeth is minor for the purposes of ageing. The remainder of the paper concentrates on mandibular molars. It appears that mandibular first and second molars wear at similar rates throughout life. Wear on the third molar is more variable and hence should be given less weight in age determination. The results confirm the value of dental wear for estimating age at death, and comparison of crown heights with Brothwell's stages confirm the value of his scheme for scoring wear. However the definitions of some of Brothwell's stages were found to be problematic, and in this light some revisions to his scheme are suggested. There are problems in applying tooth wear data to age older adults in archaeological populations, particularly as many of these show substantial ante-mortem loss of teeth. It is suggested that for archaeological populations young adults (aged about 17–35) may be distinguished from mature adults (aged about 35–55) on the basis of dental wear using Brothwell's chart. In archaeological groups, adults showing losses of more than about 50% of their teeth ante-mortem are probably aged over about 55 years at death.