From the present to the past: evaluation of age estimation methods that use metrical variables in a contemporary skeletal collection

GARCÍA MANCUSO, ROCÍO; PETRONE, SELENE; PEÑA, VICTORIA CHIARA; MIGUEZ, L. J.; DESÁNTOLO, BÁRBARA; PLISCHUK, MARCOS

Alcalá de Henares

Congreso; IVX SSCIP; 2022

The bioanthropological study of fetal and infant remains is an investigation field that provides relevant information that can be used in discussions related to growth, infant and maternal health and social dynamics. The aim of the present study was to evaluate age estimation methods based on the maximum length of deciduous dentition and femur length. For this purpose, metrical variables were registered directly on skeletal remains from the Lambre collection (Municipal Cemetery of La Plata, Argentina). The age was estimated using regression equations and to pursue the analyses the sample was divided in fetal and postnatal individuals aged up to one year of age, known from cemetery archives. It was found that the available methods for estimating age from the length of the long bones consider the fetal and postnatal periods, but in no case the continuity of growth between the two periods, which is the case for some methods that include dental metrical variables. The estimated ages offered by methods that use femur length are all appropriate and show similar results in prenatal individuals. On the contrary, the results are very different between methods that use femur length in the postnatal period, and for those that include dentition length for both age groups. It was also observed that the relationship between estimated ages by tooth and femur length is not equivalent for all ages. For the postnatal period, estimated ages were compared with chronological ages and it was found that estimated ages from dental metrical variables can be more accurate than those estimated from bone length. Considering that birth is a chronologically variable event that can occur within a range that includes several weeks, and the high mortality that occur in the perinatal period, both nowadays and in the past, it is desirable to increase the number of studies that take into account the continuity of growth between the pre and postnatal periods. This should help to differentiate between fetal and neonatal individuals based on skeletal remains and yield to better interpretations of demographic dynamics in the past and the resolution of forensic cases in the present.