Re-evaluating the use of dental wear as a tool for estimating age at death in British archaeological skeletal remains

有多种方法可以使用各种技术从骨骼遗骸中获得年龄估计。这些估计有助于提供个人概况，并在考古学中用作人口健康的指标，提供对过去生活和社区的了解。在法医的环境中，这种洞察力可能会导致失踪者的身份识别。在这两种情况下，获得准确和可靠的年龄估计是至关重要的，因此有必要定期评估用于这方面的常用方法。确定骨骼年龄的方法之一是通过检查牙齿。人类牙齿的发育被用于年龄估计，因为它与骨骼的大多数其他部分更紧密地联系在一起（White 2011）。这意味着在恒牙完全长出之前，牙列可以为亚成年个体提供准确的年龄指示。许多这些方法使用牙齿发育作为获得年龄估计的手段。这可以分为以下几个阶段：冠形成阶段、冠完成阶段、冠喷发阶段和顶端闭合阶段（Hillson 2014）。然而，Hillson（2014）指出，这些发展阶段并不总是容易定义。这是因为随着牙齿的发育，组织矿化的过程发生了，结果是最近的组织，可能还没有完全矿化，可能不可见。同样明显的是，个体的人类变异会发生，因此可能不适合某个特定的阶段。在检查考古组合时必须考虑到这些问题，因为它可能会因高估或低估亚成年个体的年龄而影响种群的古人口统计图像。在对未成年人进行年龄估计的教学中，常用的技术包括Ubelaker（1978）的乳牙和恒牙发育和萌出图表，该图表可以为个体提供一个大致的年龄估计。然而，从Smith（1991）的“平均获得年龄”表中可以得到更准确的估计。这些表格描述了下颌恒牙的发育阶段，以Moorrees等人（1963a）为基础。Moorrees等人（1963b）也得出了类似的下颌乳牙发育阶段。要使用这些系统，必须检查每颗牙齿并记录其发育阶段。“平均年龄”表可用于建立亚成年标本的年龄估计。这种使用平均年龄的系统是使用少数个体作为样本的研究的结果，产生的估计可能不会均匀地分布在一个年龄范围内。对于额外的见解到估计年龄使用牙列在成人领域的法医学和牙科学应予以考虑。Kvaal等人（1995）提出了一种利用x光片测量的技术。这些数据包括最大牙齿长度、牙髓长度、近中表面的根长度以及从6颗牙齿上取的根髓宽度。从所产生的回归公式中得出结论，这可能是估计成年人死亡年龄的一种潜在方法，尽管需要更多的抽样。与Smith（1991）和Moorrees等人（1963a,b）的方法一样，射线照片被用作估计年龄的手段。Kvaal等人的这项技术还需要多次精确的测量，这意味着将这种方法应用于考古收藏品可能是漫长而耗时的。然而，除了传统的考古方法外，还包括牙科学和/或法医技术，可能会发现确定更可靠的人类骨骼材料年龄估计的新方法。有多种方法来处理老化的人类骨骼遗骸，它们都有各自的优缺点。

There are multiple methods for obtaining an age estimate from skeletal remains useing a variety of techniques. These estimates can help to provide a profile of an individual and are used in archaeology as an indicator of a population's health, providing an insight into past life and communities. In a forensic setting this insight could potentially lead to the identification of a missing person. In both situations obtaining an accurate and reliable age estimate is crucial and it is therefore necessary that the common methods used for this are assessed periodically. One of the ways in which a skeleton's age can be determined is through examining the dentition. Human dental development is used for age estimation as it more closely associated with chronological age than most other parts of the skeleton (White 2011). This means that until the permanent teeth have fully erupted the dentition can provide an accurate indication for age in sub---adult individuals. Many of these methods use tooth development as a means for obtaining age estimates. This can be broken down in to the following stages: crown initiation, crown completion,crown eruption stages and the apex closure (Hillson 2014). However, Hillson (2014) notes that these development stages are not always easy to define.This is because as a tooth develops a process of tissue mineralisation occurs and as a result the most recent tissue, which may not have been fully mineralised, may not be visible. It is also evident that individual human variation occurs and therefore may not fit into a particular stage. Theseissues must be taken into consideration when examining an archaeological assemblage as it may affect the paleodemographic picture of a population by over -or under estimating the age of sub---adult individuals. Common techniques used in the teaching of age estimation of sub---adultindividuals include Ubelaker's (1978) chart of the development and eruption of deciduous and permanent teeth, which can provide an approximate age estimate for an individual. However, more accurate estimates may be obtained from the tables of "mean age of attainment" from Smith (1991). These tables depict the development stages of permanent mandibular teeth and are based on Moorrees et al. (1963a). Moorrees et al. (1963b) have also produced similar developmental stages for mandibular deciduous teeth. To use these systems each individual tooth should be examined and the developmental stage recorded. The "mean age of attainment" tables can then be used to establish an age estimate for sub---adult specimens. This system of using the mean age is the result of studies using few individuals as a sample, producing estimates that may not be evenly spread across an age range.For additional insights into the estimation of age using dentition in adults the field of forensics and odontology should be considered. Kvaal et al. (1995) produced a technique using measurements taken from radiographs. These included the maximum tooth length, the pulp length, the root length on the mesial surface and the root and pulp width taken from six teeth. From regression formulas that were produced it was concluded that this might be a potential method for estimating the age at death of adults, although more sampling would be needed.As with the Smith (1991) and Moorrees et al. (1963a,b) method, radiographs are used as a means for estimating age. This technique by Kvaal et al. also requires multiple, precise measurements, which means applying this method to archaeological collections may be lengthy and time consuming. However, including odontological and/or forensic techniques alongside traditional archaeological methods, new approaches for identifying more reliable age estimates for human skeletal material may be discovered.There are multiple methods for aging human skeletal remains, all of which have strengths and weaknesses.