New method for estimation of adult skeletal age at death from the morphology of the auricular surface of the ilium

Abstract

A new method for estimating skeletal age at death from the morphology of the auricular surface of the ilium is presented. It uses a multiple regression analysis with dummy variables, and is based on the examination of 700 modern Japanese skeletal remains with age records. The observer using this method needs only to check for the presence or absence of nine (for a male) or seven (for a female) features on the auricular surface and to select the parameter estimates of each feature, calculated by multiple regression analysis with dummy variables. The observer can obtain an estimated age from the sum of parameter estimates. It is shown that a fine granular texture of the auricular surface is typical of younger individuals, whereas a heavily porous texture is characteristic of older individuals, and that both of these features are very useful for estimating age. Our method is shown here to be more accurate than other methods, especially in the older age ranges. Since the auricular surface allows more expedient observations than other parts of the skeleton, this new method can be expected to improve the overall accuracy of estimating skeletal age at death.

A test of Suchey–Brooks (pubic symphysis) and Buckberry–Chamberlain (auricular surface) methods on an identified Spanish sample: paleodemographic implications

“…These results, in conjunction with significant sexual differences found in bias and absolute difference averages in the present study and the sexual differences of score distribution observed by Hens and Belcastro (2012), suggest that in further analysis when using the BuckberryeChamberlain method, the sexes should not be combined. In fact, these results are not surprising because Igarashi et al (2005) demonstrated that the mode of chronological change in the auricular surface differs between males and females. The mean absolute difference obtained herein when applying the SucheyeBrooks method is higher than that reported by Martrille et al (2007) in a North American sample and Hens et al (2008) in a documented Italian collection and lower than the results of Schmitt (2004) in a Thai skeletal collection.…”

Estimation of skeletal adult age distribution of Okhotsk people in northern Japan

“…The auricular surface is an useful age indicator (Kobayashi, 1967;Lovejoy et al, 1985;Buckberry and Chamberlain, 2002;Osborne et al, 2004;Igarashi et al, 2005), as its decay is persistent in forensic and archeological contexts and it seems to cover wide ranges of ages up to elderly individuals (Storey, 2007). This study analyzed iliac auricular surfaces of adult individuals 15 years of age and above using two techniques: the original method of Lovejoy et al (1985) and the revised method of Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002).…”

The auricular surface as age indicator in a modern Greek sample: A test of two qualitative methods

“…The features recorded include grain and density, macroporosity, billowing, striations, apex lipping, activity in the retroauricular area and transverse organization. Several scholars applied Lovejoy's method in different samples and noted that older individuals tended to be underaged, whereas the age of younger individuals was overestimated [13][14][15][16][17]. In addition, many studies found that the 5-year intervals proposed by Lovejoy et al [4] are unrealistically narrow [14,18].…”

“…In this case, all variables are recorded in a binary scale, except for granulation and porosity (SSPIB), for which an ordinal system is used. Finally, Igarashi et al's [17] approach is based on the binary scoring (presence -absence) of 13 variables per individual, mainly concerning surface texture, porosity, granularity and hypertrophy.…”