The accurate estimation of age is considered important from an ethical, legal and
archaeological perspective. Among the numerous methods based on macroscopic skeletal
studies for age estimation, the Suchey-Brooks (1990) method for aging from the pubic
symphysis and the Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002) method for aging from the auricular
surface are considered more reliable. However, both these methods have been derived from
American populations. In saying this, the following study aimed to evaluate whether it is
possible to accurately estimate the age-at-death from morphological age-related changes seen
on the pubic symphysis and the auricular surface in a black South African population. A total
of 197 individuals of both sexes utilising both left and right os coxae were investigated. Age
was estimated using descriptions stipulated by Brooks and Suchey (1990) and Buckberry and
Chamberlain (2002). Both methods indicated moderate to high inter-and intra-observer errors.
Descriptive statistics indicated a sample distribution of predominantly middle aged individuals.
Correlation coefficients, inaccuracies and bias as well as Principal Components Analysis
(PCA) were calculated for both skeletal elements for both sexes and sides. Statistical analyses
indicated no significant differences between sexes and sides for both the pubic symphysis and
the auricular surface. When comparing accuracies of each method, inaccuracies and bias were
lower in the pubic symphysis than in the auricular surface thus making the pubic symphysis a
more reliable age estimator. Similarly, males indicated lower inaccuracies and bias than did
females. Principal Component Analysis indicated variance between certain features found on
the pubic symphysis and the auricular surface. Overall, the pubic symphysis outperformed the
auricular surface, even though the method described by Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002) is
considered more reliable. Further investigation of these two methods on a white South African
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15226 |
| Date | 22 August 2014 |
| Creators | Pininski, Melissa |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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