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

重新评估使用牙齿磨损作为估计英国考古骨骼遗骸死亡年龄的工具

• 批准号: 1641525
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2015 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1641525
• 关键词: Re; evaluating; use; dental; wear

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.

有多种方法可以使用多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指标，提供对过去生活和社区的洞察。在法医环境中，这种洞察力可能会导致失踪人员的身份识别。在这两种情况下，获得准确可靠的年龄估计至关重要，因此有必要定期评估用于此目的的常用方法。确定骨骼年龄的方法之一是通过检查牙列。人类牙齿发育被用于年龄估计，因为它比骨骼的大多数其他部分与实际年龄的关系更密切（White 2011）。这意味着，在恒牙完全萌出之前，牙列可以为亚成年个体的年龄提供准确的指示。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：牙冠起始、牙冠完成、牙冠萌出阶段和根尖闭合（Hillson 2014）。然而，Hillson (2014) 指出，这些发育阶段并不总是容易定义。这是因为随着牙齿的发育，组织矿化的过程就会发生，因此，可能尚未完全矿化的最新组织可能不可见。同样明显的是，人类存在个体差异，因此可能不适合特定的阶段。在检查考古组合时必须考虑这些问题，因为它可能会通过高估或低估亚成年个体的年龄来影响人口的古人口学图景。亚成人年龄估计教学中使用的常用技术包括 Ubelaker (1978) 的乳牙和恒牙发育和萌出图表，它可以提供个人的大致年龄估计。然而，可以从 Smith（1991）的“平均达到年龄”表中获得更准确的估计。这些表格描述了下颌恒牙的发育阶段，基于 Moorrees 等人的研究。 （1963a）。莫里斯等人。 (1963b) 也得出了下颌乳牙的类似发育阶段。要使用这些系统，应检查每颗牙齿并记录发育阶段。然后可以使用“平均达到年龄”表来建立亚成年样本的年龄估计。这种使用平均年龄的系统是使用少数个体作为样本进行研究的结果，产生的估计值可能不会均匀地分布在某个年龄范围内。要获得使用成人牙列估计年龄的更多见解，应考虑法医学和牙科领域。克瓦尔等人。 (1995) 提出了一种使用射线照片测量的技术。这些包括最大牙齿长度、牙髓长度、近中表面的牙根长度以及六颗牙齿的牙根和牙髓宽度。从生成的回归公式得出的结论是，这可能是估计成年人死亡年龄的潜在方法，尽管需要更多的采样。与 Smith (1991) 和 Moorrees 等人一样。 (1963a,b) 方法中，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，这意味着将此方法应用于考古收藏可能会很漫长且耗时。然而，除了传统的考古方法之外，包括牙科和/或法医技术，可能会发现用于确定更可靠的人类骨骼材料年龄估计的新方法。用于老化人类骨骼遗骸的方法有多种，所有这些方法都有优点和缺点。