Sex determination in skeletal remains from the medieval Eastern Adriatic coast – discriminant function analysis of humeri

Abstract

AimTo investigate the usefulness of humerus measurement for sex determination in a sample of medieval skeletons from the Eastern Adriatic Coast. Additional aim was to compare the results with contemporary female population.MethodsFive humerus measurements (maximum length, epicondylar width, maximum vertical diameter of the head, maximum and minimum diameter of the humerus at midshaft) for 80 male and 35 female medieval and 19 female contemporary humeri were recorded. Only sufficiently preserved skeletons and those with no obvious pathological or traumatic changes that could affect the measurements were included. For ten samples, analysis of DNA was performed in order to determine sex using amelogenin.ResultsThe initial comparison of men and women indicated significant differences in all five measures (P < 0.001). Discriminant function for sex determination indicated that as much as 85% of cases could be properly categorized, with better results in men (86%) than women (80%). Furthermore, the comparison of the medieval and contemporary women did not show significant difference in any of the measured features. Sex results obtained by anthropological and DNA analysis matched in all 10 cases.ConclusionThe results indicate that humerus measurement in Croatian medieval population may be sufficient to determine the sex of the skeleton. Furthermore, it seems that secular changes have not substantially affected contemporary population, suggesting that the results of this study are transferable to contemporary population as well.

Sex estimation of upper long bones by selected measurements in a Radom (Poland) population from the 18th and 19th centuries AD

“…The estimation of sex using metric methods has been explored by many researchers of both contemporary (Barrier and L'Abbé 2008;Celbis and Agritmis 2006) and historical populations (Bergmann et al 1962;Cowal and Pastor 2008;Bašić et al 2013). The humerus or clavicle have been studied intensively and standards have been obtained for several populations, from the Adriatic coast (Bašić et al 2013), the southern India region (Patil et al 2011), Iran (Akhlaghi et al 2012), and even prehistoric New Zealand populations (Murphy 1994).…”

“…Sex estimation is an important first step in the development of a biological profile in human osteology and is used in both bioarchaeological studies (González et al 2007;Bašić et al 2013) and forensic anthropological analysis (Kamdi et al 2014;Peckmann et al 2015). In these fields, it is important to recognize the sex of the skeleton, regardless of the state of preservation.…”

“…Dimensions from the upper long bones (humerus, radius, ulna, and clavicle) have been used to successfully distinguish between the sexes in several European (Cowal and Pastor 2008;Bašić et al 2013;Kranioti and Tzanakis 2015), Asian (Sakaue 2004;Lee et al 2014) and African populations (Steyn and Işcan 1999;Barrier and Abbé 2008). In mentioned studies, different measurements have been shown to be good indicators of sex dimorphism.…”

“…Therefore, if the skeleton is reasonably complete and a reliable morphological diagnosis is possible, there is no need to apply molecular methods. In such cases, sex estimation can generally be detected by two different approaches: observation of morphological trials and/ or measurement of different bones (Asala et al 2004;Cowal and Pastor 2008;Robinson and Bidmos 2011;Spradley and Jantz 2011;Albanese 2013;Bašić et al 2013).…”

Sex determination from femora in late antique sample from Eastern Adriatic coast (Salona necropolis)

“…They comprise: medieval femora, tibiae and humeri (Šlaus 1997;Šlaus and Tomičić 2005;Bašić et al 2013), medieval and contemporary mandible and teeth (Vodanović et al 2006;Vodanović et al 2007), and contemporary femora and tibiae (Šlaus et al 2003; Šlaus et al 2013). Until now, no such study has been conducted on late antique populations from this area.…”