Abstract
Sex estimation of skeletal remains is one of the major components of forensic identification of unknown individuals. Teeth are a potential source of information on sex and are often recovered in archaeological or forensic contexts due to their post-mortem longevity. Currently, there is limited data on dental sexual dimorphism of archaeological populations from Iran. This paper represents the first study to provide a dental sex estimation method for Iron Age populations. The current study was conducted on the skeletal remains of 143 adults from two Iron Age populations in close temporal and geographic proximity in the Solduz Valley (West Azerbaijan Province of Iran). Mesiodistal and buccolingual cervical measurements of 1334 maxillary and mandibular teeth were used to investigate the degree of sexual dimorphism in permanent dentition and to assess their applicability in sex estimation. Data was analysed using discriminant function analysis (SPSS 23), and posterior probabilities were calculated for all produced formulae. The results showed that incisors and canines were the most sexually dimorphic teeth, providing percentages of correct sex classification between 86.4 and 100 % depending on the measurement used. The combination of canines and other teeth improved significantly the level of correct sex classification. The highest percentages of sex classification were obtained by the combination of canines and incisors (100 %) and canines and molars (92.3 %). The present study provided the first reference standards for sex estimation using odontometric data in an Iranian archaeological population. Cervical measurements were found to be of value for sex assessment, and the method presented here can be a useful tool for establishing accurate demographic data from skeletal remains of the Iron Age from Iran.
Highlights
In human populations, males and females normally differ in dental size
The present study aims to examine the level of sexual dimorphism in permanent teeth of Iranian archaeological populations using cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual diameters and to assess the applicability of cervical measurements in sex estimation based on discriminant function analysis
U upper, L lower, I incisor, C canine, P premolar, M molar a M3 was excluded from the discriminant function analysis
Summary
Males and females normally differ in dental size. On average, males have larger teeth than females and this characteristic could be used in sex estimation (Garn et al 1964, 1966; Ditch and Rose 1972; Kieser et al 1985; Hattab et al 1997; Işcan and Kedici 2003; Hassett 2011; Viciano et al 2015). The most commonly reported tooth measurements for sex estimation are the maximum mesiodistal and buccolingual crown measurements (Black 1978; Hattab et al 1997; Kondo and Townsend 2004; Acharya and Mainali 2007; Pereira et al 2010; Mitsea et al 2014; Gonçalves et al 2014; Sharma et al 2015) These measurements, are difficult to obtain in worn teeth or crowns that are embedded in the jaw. Cervical measurements are useful in the studies of prehistorical skeletal remains as they allow for the inclusion of teeth with alterations on the crown due to wear, pathology (e.g. caries), cultural modification or post-mortem damage This allows a larger dataset to be obtained with a broader range of ages represented
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