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.

Advances in technologies such as computed tomography (CT) scanning have allowed for further examination of dental sexual dimorphism in modern and archaeological populations.

In the field of human osteology, sex estimation is an important step in developing a biological profile. There are a number of methods that can be used to estimate the sex of human remains, varying from visual assessments to metric analysis of sexually dimorphic traits. Teeth are one of the most durable physical elements in the human body and thus can be very successfully used for this purpose. The present study investigates the utility of cervical measurements for sex estimation through discriminant analysis. The permanent molar teeth of 75 skeletons (28 females and 52 males) from the Hasanlu site in north-western Iran were studied. Cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements were taken from both maxillary and mandibular first and second molars. Discriminant analysis was used to evaluate the accuracy of each diameter in assessing sex. The results showed that males had statistically larger teeth than females for maxillary and mandibular molars and cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements (P < 0.05). The range of classification rate was from 78.4% to 87.1% for the original and 78.4% to 85.5% for cross-validated data. The most dimorphic teeth were the maxillary and mandibular second molars, providing 87.1% and 86.1% correct classification rate respectively. The data generated from the present study suggested that cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual measurements of molar teeth can be useful and reliable for sex estimation in Iranian archaeological populations. Odontometric analysis of sexual dimorphism in permanent maxillary

CT is a non-invasive technique that allows for an accurate and detailed visualization of morphological features without causing any damage to teeth. Our findings indicate that virtual odontometric analysis is a reliable method, similar to traditional physical odontometric analysis. Currently, the virtual system is likely to be more suitable for fragile specimens, such as archaeological samples.