Sex determination of ancient human remains

Sex determination is an important issue of anthropological and forensic sciences. Determination of sex is a priority issue for further analysis of unidentified ancient human remains, because all techniques of identification are markedly different for males and females. The present study provides sex determination using discriminant analysis from tibia measurements in an ancient Anatolian population. In this study, a total of 7 tibia measurements were taken from 123 adults of known sex (62 males and 61 females) in Medieval Dilkaya population (A.D. 10th century). Osteometric measurements included were the length, circumference of midshaft and minimum, transverse and sagittal diameters of midshaft and nutrient foramen levels. Data were analyzed by student t-test and discriminant analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 13.0 program. Results showed that grouping due to sex differentiations was accurate by tibia metric values between 73.5% and 90.2% in Dilkaya population. The midshaft circumference was the best single discriminating variable and results of this study compare with other studies. It is suggested that discriminant formulas developed by tibia measurements in this study can be used for sex determination accurately on fragmentary skeletal remains in ancient Anatolian populations.

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.

Collegium antropologicum, 2006

Sex determination from skeletal human remains by discriminant function analysis is one of the methods utilized in the forensic and osteoarcheological sciences. The purpose of the present study is to establish metric standards for sex determination for medieval Anatolian populations using scapular measurements. The database for this research consisted of 93 adult skeletal remains (47 males and 46 females) from the Dilkaya medieval collection. Four measurements were taken: maximum scapular height, maximum scapular breadth, glenoid cavity height, glenoid cavity breadth, and subjected to discriminant function analysis. All measurements demonstrated some degree of sexual dimorphism, with the highest accuracy of sex determination (94.8%) obtained using maximum scapular breadth. Overall accuracies of the functions ranged from 82.9% to 95.0%, with a higher accuracy rate obtained for female skeletons than for males. Population specific discriminant formulas were developed using combinations ...

2018

The skeletal study of archaeological material is the only detailed source of demographic information on ancient populations and investigating sex differences is crucial for the reconstruction of the social structure of past societies. Determination of skeletal sex can be achieved using visual (non-metric) or metric methods. Metric methods are considered more appropriate for assessing sex in archaeological skeletal remains since the accuracy of non-metric methods decreases in cases of fragmented bones. Additionally, it is well established that the expression of sexual dimorphism is population specific. Therefore, sex prediction equations should be used only when the sample is known to come from the same population from which the functions were derived. The aim of this study is to test the application of sex prediction equations, which were produced using measurements from the arm bones of a modern Greek population, in ancient Greek skeletal remains. For the purpose of this research five ancient populations were examined; Ancient Corinth, Corfu, Agia Triada Thebes, Edessa and Thebes. According to our results, ulnar sex prediction equations cannot be considered adequate for sex determination of ancient skeletal remains. On the contrary, humeral as well as radial sex prediction equations can be considered adequately reliable for sex determination of ancient skeletal remains. More specifically, sex prediction equations containing the humeral vertical head diameter, its combination with the humeral epicondylar width as well as the maximum radial distal width, achieve a classification accuracy over 72%.

Journal of bioanthropology, 2022

During 2019, 28 grave constructions were excavated at cemetery Metaljica (Hadzici municipality, Bosnia and Herzegovina). Archaeological excavation have revealed 17 well preserved skeletons that were subjected to anthropological, odontological and genetic analyses. To determine sex by genetic analysis, amelogenin and DYS391 loci were taken into consideration. Concordance between results of anthropological, odontological and genetic analyses applied in this research occurred in one sample out of 17. In four samples, sex was determined only by genetic analysis, since sexual dimorphism indicators were not preserved. Concordance between odontological and genetic determinations was observed in two samples, while affirmative results of anthropological and genetic analysis were obtained in only one sample. Discrepancy in the majority of samples can be atributted to the state of preservation of skeletal remains, interpopulation differences and allele drop-out. Moreover, anthropological and o...

Forensic Science International, 2009

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.

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."

AbstrAct: The determination of sex is one of the first steps in anthropological analysis. When skeletal remains are fragmented, the most useful approach is application of osteometric methods. The methods are population specific, and therefore require development of discriminant functions for each population group. The aim of this study was to test sexual dimorphism of femoral measurements and to calculate discrimi-nant functions applicable for sex determination on fragmented skeletal remains on the late antique sample from the Eastern Adriatic coast (2 nd –6 th century AD). 214 randomly chosen skeletons from the excavation site Solin-Smiljanovac were analyzed. Sex and age were assessed using standard anthropological methods, and skeletons were examined for pathologic and traumatic changes. In the next step, we selected 27 female and 48 male skeletons free of peri-or post-mor-tem changes that could affect measurements Eight standard femoral measurements were taken. Sexual dimorphism was initially compared using independent sample t test, after which discriminant functions were computed. All femoral measurements showed statistically significant sexual dimorphism (p<0.001). Ten discriminant functions for every part of femur were calculated and obtained classification accuracy of 73.1–91.8%. This study reached relatively high classification, which will improve further analysis of the skeletal remains from the Salona necropolis. Due to similar population structure in the Roman period across the Adriatic coast, the discriminant functions could be applicable for all populations from the same period and area. This study also raised a few methodological questions showing that when creating discriminant functions we should consider not only the accuracy, but also the applicability based on the experience from the anthropology laboratory that considers the state of preservation and frequent pathology.

Forensic Sciences , 2022

The aim of this paper was to present all studies that have used the Athens Collection in order to develop methods for skeletal sex estimations and highlight the importance of documented skeletal reference collections in forensic anthropology. The Athens Collection is housed at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece; it consists of 250 individuals and both sexes are well-represented. Several studies have used this collection for skeletal sex estimations. In particular, macroscopic observation methods have been used based on the cranium and pelvis; metric methods, including geometric morphometrics, have been applied to cranial and postcranial elements. These studies involved both the development of methods for the sex estimation of Greek/Eastern Mediterranean assemblages and an examination of the accuracy of the existing methods, thus making this collection a key resource for forensic anthropological and bioarchaeological research.