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Two new methodological approaches for assessing skeletal maturity in archeological human remains based on the femoral distal epiphysis

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Abstract

This study presents two new methodological approaches for estimating skeletal age from maturational changes in the femoral distal epiphysis. In the first approach, five maturity stages were coded based on morphological changes in the epiphysis that encompass the overall developmental process. Data were presented as age ranges for the different maturity stages in the reference sample. As this approach has a number of shortcomings for age assessment, a probabilistic approach was also used. Cross-validation was then used to compare the accuracy of the age estimation from the maturity stages with that from Pyle and Hoerr’s atlas. This study’s findings showed that Pyle and Hoerr’s atlas is more precise than our qualitative method in the oldest age categories. Nonetheless, results from the test of agreement between methods showed that skeletal age estimates from both methods are interchangeable. In the second approach, the overall shape of the femoral distal epiphyses was first analyzed based on elliptical Fourier descriptors (EFDs). Since the number of EFDs is excessively large, a principal component analysis (PCA) of these EFDs was carried out. PC1 scores were used to model the relationship between age and overall shape in a sample of 110 cases of the femoral distal epiphysis. Inverse and classical regression methods of calibration were used to explore the relationship. Based on our results, we recommend the use of a classical calibration model for those cases in which we suspect that the growth and development of the target individual is advanced or delayed relative to those of the Portuguese sample. Otherwise, the inverse calibration model is preferable. Both, quantitative and qualitative methods presented herein notably improve our abilities to estimate skeletal age using incomplete femora from skeletal samples.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Alexandre Marçal (Museu Bocage, Museu Nacional de Historia Natural, Lisboa), Rosa Sofia da Conceição Neto Westerlain (Coimbra University), and Francisco Pastor Vázquez (Universidad de Valladolid) for providing access to the skeletal collection in their care. Special thanks to Maria de la Fuente for the illustration of the femoral stages. We would to thank to our colleagues from the Laboratorio de Evolución Humana (Universidad de Burgos) and Centro UCM-ISCIII (Madrid) for their useful comments of the manuscript. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers and the associate editor whose suggestions notably improve the initial manuscript. Rolf Quam also revised the English in the final version of the manuscript.

Funding

The authors received support from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (projects PGC2018-093925-B-C33 and CGL-2015 65387-C3-2-P (MINECO-FEDER).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Evolución Humana, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Comunicación, Facultad de Humanidades y Comunicación, Universidad de Burgos, Edificio I+D+i, Plaza Misael Bañuelos s/n, C/ Villadiego s/n, 09001, Burgos, Spain

    Rebeca García-González, José Miguel Carretero & Laura Rodríguez

  2. Centro UCM-ISCIII de Investigación sobre la Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Avda. Monforte de Lemos, 5, 28029, Madrid, Spain

    José Miguel Carretero & Juan Luis Arsuaga

  3. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Isabel I, C/ Fernán-González 76, 09003, Burgos, Spain

    Laura Rodríguez

  4. Departamento de Paleontología, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Luis Arsuaga

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  1. Rebeca García-González
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Correspondence to Rebeca García-González.

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García-González, R., Carretero, J.M., Rodríguez, L. et al. Two new methodological approaches for assessing skeletal maturity in archeological human remains based on the femoral distal epiphysis. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 6515–6536 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00920-6

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