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To investigate the presence of trepanations in an early Modern Age, skeletal collection documented in medical treatises but infrequently reported in osteological collections. Analyses were conducted on 387 non-adult crania from the ossuary in the church of the Assumption of Valdepeñas (16th - 18th C.), Ciudad Real, Spain. All complete or semi-complete crania of non-adults (aged 3–20 years) were macroscopically examined. Trepanation was detected in two adolescents aged 14 and 20 years; no evidence of their survival was observed. These findings suggest that trepanation was carried out in rural areas as Valdepeñas in the 16th-18th centuries, where the selection of instruments indicates knowledge of contemporaneous medical treatises. The present study provides new data on trepanation and how it was performed in adolescents during this period. Understanding the motive for these interventions is highly challenging in the absence of bone lesions, and their occurrence is likely underestimated due to the scant research in skeletal remains from the early Modern Age. Further palaeopathological analyses of osteological collections from this period will provide more information about how this surgical technique was perfected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The skeletal remains of an adult female have been exhumed in an 11th century tomb in the mediaeval Jewish cemetery of Ronda Sur, in the city of Lucena (Córdoba, Spain). Examination of the skull and mandible revealed evidences of bilateral condylar fracture and dislocation. Lesions were observed macroscopically and radiology was used as a complementary method of scrutiny, especially in cases of unclear observation. Irregular morphology of the condyles and coronoid processes, shallow glenoid fossa, altered and abnormal joint surfaces anterior to the glenoid fossa, and reduced height of both ascending rami were observed. Ante-mortem tooth loss, slight wear of occlusal surface and asymmetrical occlusal deposit of dental calculus were found. Radiologically, degenerative changes in the condyles and reparative bone in both coronoid processes have been identified. Dislocation of the condyles and lack of adequate treatment probably led to disruption of masticatory patterns and related structures, such as muscle attachments, articular disc and ligaments. Bilateral remodelled fracture and the altered appearance of the joint structures could probably mean that the individual survived the injury by several years. This type of fracture could be the consequence of direct blow to the mental or submental region that was transmitted in a direction that raised the mandible, causing the condylar head to collide directly with the mandibular fossa. Very few mandibular fractures in ancient skulls have been described in Spain, and this case is the first example found in a Spanish archaeological skeletal assemblage. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Over the past few years, several methods have been proposed to improve the accuracy of age estimation in infants with a focus on dental development as a reliable marker. However, traditional approaches have limitations in efficiently combining information from different teeth and features. In order to address these challenges, this article presents a study on age estimation in infants with Machine Learning (ML) techniques, using deciduous teeth., Materials and Methods: The involved dataset comprises 114 infant skeletons from the Granada osteological collection of identified infants, aged between 5 months of gestation and 3 years of age. The samples consist of features such as the maximum length and mineralization and alveolar stages of teeth. For the purpose of designing a method capable of combining all the information available from each individual, a Multilayer Perceptron model is proposed, one of the most popular artificial neural networks. This model has been validated using the leave-one-out experimental validation protocol. Through different groups of experiments, the study examines the informativeness of the aforementioned features, individually and in combination., Results: The results indicate that the fusion of different variables allows for more accurate age estimates (RMSE = 66 days) than when variables are analyzed separately (RMSE = 101 days). Additionally, the study demonstrates the benefits of involving multiple teeth, which significantly reduces the RMSE compared to a single tooth., Discussion: This article underlines the clear advantages of ML-based methods, emphasizing their potential to improve the accuracy and robustness when estimating the age of infants., (© 2024 The Authors. American Journal of Biological Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Reducing the subjectivity of the methods used for biological profile estimation is, at present, a priority research line in forensic anthropology. To achieve this, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be a valuable tool yet to be exploited in this discipline. The goal of this study is to compare the effectiveness of different machine learning (ML) methods with the visual assessment of an expert to estimate the sex of infant skeletons from images of the ilium. Photographs of the ilium of 135 individuals, age between 5 months of gestation and 6 years, from the collection of identified infant skeletons of the University of Granada have been used, and classic ML and deep learning (DL) techniques have been applied to develop prediction algorithms. To assess their effectiveness, the results have been compared with those obtained by a forensic expert, who has estimated the sex from each photograph through direct observation and subjective assessment following the criteria described by Schutkowsky in 1993. The results show that the algorithms obtained using DL techniques offer an accuracy of 59%, very close to the 61% obtained by the expert, and 10 percentual points better than classic ML techniques. This study offers promising results and represents the first AI-based approach for estimating sex in infant individuals using photographs of the ilium., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The aim of this work was to study the sexual dimorphism of the occlusal surface of the maxillary postcanine dentition using geometric morphometric techniques. This study evaluated 139 individuals as part of five osteological collections from municipal cemeteries in the province of Granada (Spain). The landmarks and semilandmarks were analysed by principal components analysis, canonical variate analysis and discriminant analysis. Only the fourth maxillary premolar showed significant sexual dimorphism; however, cross-validation values for shape variables were 64.44% for males and 63.60% for females and 60.17% for males and 60.99% for females when both shape and size variables were considered. The third maxillary premolar and first and second maxillary molars did not show significant sexual dimorphism. The results show that maxillary postcanine dentition cannot assist in sex estimation, either only shape or shape and size.

Estimating the sex of immature skeletal remains is important when reconstructing the biological profile of unknown individuals in anthropological practice. Teeth have a distinct importance as they are the most frequently recovered physical elements of an individual. They persist after death due to their hardness and resistance to postmortem insults. The aim of this study was to analyse the sexual dimorphism of the occlusal surface of the first deciduous molar using geometric morphometric techniques. This study evaluated 38 first maxillary deciduous molars (21 males, 17 females) and 30 first mandibular deciduous molars (15 males, 15 females) from the Granada osteological collection of identified subadults (Granada, Spain). The landmark and semilandmark coordinates were analysed by principal components analysis, canonical variate analysis and discriminant analysis. Only the first maxillary deciduous molar showed a significant sexual dimorphism, with cross-validation values for shape variables of 93.23% for males and 83.17% for females, and 100% for males and 87.50% for females when both shape and size variables were considered. Despite there being acceptable cross-validation classification for the first mandibular deciduous molar (82.35% for males and 92.31% for females for shape variables and 82.35% for males and 92.31% for females for shape and size variables), no significant differences indicating sexual dimorphism were identified. The results show that the first upper deciduous molar can assist in sex estimation, and that geometric morphometric analysis is a suitable technique to answer questions related to shape that cannot be observed with the naked eye., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study provides regression equations for estimation of age of infants from the dimensions of their developing deciduous teeth. The sample comprises 97 individuals of known sex and age (62 boys, 35 girls), aged between 2 days and 1,081 days. The age-estimation equations were obtained for the sexes combined, as well as for each sex separately, thus including "sex" as an independent variable. The values of the correlations and determination coefficients obtained for each regression equation indicate good fits for most of the equations obtained. The "sex" factor was statistically significant when included as an independent variable in seven of the regression equations. However, the "sex" factor provided an advantage for age estimation in only three of the equations, compared to those that did not include "sex" as a factor. These data suggest that the ages of infants can be accurately estimated from measurements of their developing deciduous teeth., (© 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

One of the most common conditions during fetal development is anencephaly, which often involves many identification difficulties in the context of physical anthropology, as it causes severe skull challenges. In this paper, we describe the alterations found in the skulls of two perinatal individuals with anencephaly from the osteological collection of identified infants in the Anthropology Laboratory of the University of Granada, Spain. Both subjects of study are in perfect state of preservation. Despite the severe malformations, all skull bones have been targeted and identified, as the possibility of studying a subject with a complete, articulated, and partially mummified skull; the other was disjointed and well preserved. The skull bones of these two individuals affected with anencephaly have been described in detail, allowing this pathological condition to be identified in skeletonized individuals in archaeological or forensic contexts, in cases where these bones did not have anatomical connection or when these were taphonomically altered.

The objective of this study of the maturation of deciduous dentition was to offer a novel age-estimation method for Mediterranean populations, using the osteological collection of fetuses, infants, and young children in the Anthropology Laboratory of Granada University (Spain) as study material. After excluding premature newborns and infants with disease, the final study sample comprised 1303 deciduous teeth suitable for analysis from 138 individuals (80 male, 58 female) aged between 24 weeks in utero and 6 years. Eleven mineralization stages were defined for the dental maturation analysis, and the alveolar emergence was also studied. The criteria published by Demirjian et al. (Hum. Biol. 45 (1973) 211), Moorrees et al. (J. Dent. Res. 42 (1963a) 490), and Liversidge et al. (Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 123 (2004) 172) were combined and modified for this purpose. The reproducibility of the proposed method is supported by the low intra- and inter-observer error in the identification of these development stages. The results provide information on the mean age of attainment of each of 11 mineralization stages and on the average age for each stage in each deciduous tooth type, considering each sex separately and both sexes combined., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of this study is to present the characteristics of a collection of identified infants and young children housed in the Laboratory of Anthropology of the University of Granada, Spain. The sample, which is still being enlarged, is currently composed of 230 complete skeletons aged from 5 months of gestation to 8 years, with a majority below 1 year. It mainly dates from the mid-20th century. The state of preservation is very good, and antemortem information is available from burial and death certificates, among other documents. Our sample makes an important contribution to the relatively few collections available in the world for investigating the osteological development of the skeletons of infants and young children from a physical anthropological perspective., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)