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Throughout the ancient Greek, world mass burials are rare. Of the 10,000 excavated burials in the western necropolis of the Greek colony of Himera (649–409), only 16 contained more than one individual; seven of these can in all possibility be traced back to the two battles fought by Himera against the Carthaginians in 480 and 409 BCE. Written sources (Diod. 11.20ff.) state that the Himerans, accompanied by numerous Greek allies, defeated the Carthaginian forces in the first conflict whereas the loss of Greek allied support in the second battle resulted in the city's defeat and subsequent destruction. The anthropological and taphonomical studies of the human remains aim at testing the archaeological hypothesis that individuals interred in the seven mass graves can be related to the two battles. Skeleton density (skeletons per square metre), position, orientation, and conservation levels of the individuals in the mass burials were analysed and compared with a larger sample of 1,000 single burials from the same necropolis along with mass graves in other forensic and archaeological contexts. Sex, age at death, presence of skeletal stress indicators, and perimortal traumas were recorded using standard anthropological methods. In the case of poorly preserved remains, sex was estimated using site‐specific discriminant functions. Although representing catastrophic samples, the results from the seven mass burials all lead to the assumption that the graves can be associated with the interment of warriors fallen in battle. Moreover, burial differences have permitted to distinguish the mass burials dating to 480 BCE from those attributed to 409 BCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of frontal sinuses for personal identification is a considered approach in the forensic field. In Yoshino's system, the frontal sinus patterns of a given person were formulated as a code number (codY) obtained by arranging the class numbers in each classification item. The aim of this work was to use a new code number (codC) with eight digits that includes other two continuous variables obtained as ratios SOR1 (left frontal sinus area/left orbit area) and SOR2 (right frontal sinus area/right orbit area), comparing the results with that of Yoshino. Digital radiographic images of the skulls of 150 Chinese people were analyzed. Spearman's partial correlation coefficients were evaluated between variables characterizing frontal sinus patterns. We used a maximum‐weight dependence tree for statistical analysis. Results demonstrated that codC significantly reduced the probability of having the same personal code number compared with codY. Our scientific approach results valid for personal identification purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic age estimation is receiving growing attention from researchers in the last few years. Accurate estimates of age are needed both for identifying real age in individuals without any identity document and assessing it for human remains. The methods applied in such context are mostly based on radiological analysis of some anatomical districts and entail the use of a regression model. However, estimating chronological age by regression models leads to overestimated ages in younger subjects and underestimated ages in older ones. We introduced a full Bayesian calibration method combined with a segmented function for age estimation that relied on a Normal distribution as a density model to mitigate this bias. In this way, we were also able to model the decreasing growth rate in juveniles. We compared our new Bayesian‐segmented model with other existing approaches. The proposed method helped producing more robust and precise forecasts of age than compared models while exhibited comparable accuracy in terms of forecasting measures. Our method seemed to overcome the estimation bias also when applied to a real data set of South‐African juvenile subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Objectives: The estimation of an individual's age at the time of death is one of the most important components in anthropological studies and is the basis for demographic studies on ancients. However, the different methods commonly used in anthropology for adult age estimation at death provide results with a high level of uncertainty. The consequence is the inability to develop demographic studies with a good degree of reliability. A non-destructive method currently available is the analysis of the apposition of secondary dentine on which Cameriere's method is based. Materials and Methods: The purpose of this work was age estimation using Cameriere's method on a sample of 18 adult Neolithic skeletons from four sites in Southern Italy (Apulia): Carpignano, Masseria della Marina, Samari and Serra Cicora. The estimates derived from the study of mandibular and maxillary canines were compared with the age ranges obtained with commonly used anthropological indicators: fusion of cranial sutures, degree of tooth wear, remodelling of the pubic symphysis and the auricular surface of the ilium. The latter two provide intervals which encompass the ages estimated with Cameriere's method. Results: The results show that the population was composed of individuals of advanced age, even beyond the age of 50, hardly distinguishable by other methods. Discussion: This finding may support the hypothesis that individuals aged 50+ are rare in prehistoric skeletal samples due to the unreliability of classical anthropological methods, not only because they were actually rare in prehistoric populations, or absent for taphonomical reasons. Am J Phys Anthropol 158:423-430, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic medicine is increasingly called upon to assess the age of individuals. Forensic age estimation is mostly required in relation to illegal immigration and identification of bodies or skeletal remains. A variety of age estimation methods are based on dental samples and use of regression models, where the age of an individual is predicted by morphological tooth changes that take place over time. From the medico-legal point of view, regression models, with age as the dependent random variable entail that age tends to be overestimated in the young and underestimated in the old. To overcome this bias, we describe a new full Bayesian calibration method (asymmetric Laplace Bayesian calibration) for forensic age estimation that uses asymmetric Laplace distribution as the probability model. The method was compared with three existing approaches (two Bayesian and a classical method) using simulated data. Although its accuracy was comparable with that of the other methods, the asymmetric Laplace Bayesian calibration appears to be significantly more reliable and robust in case of misspecification of the probability model. The proposed method was also applied to a real dataset of values of the pulp chamber of the right lower premolar measured on x-ray scans of individuals of known age. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of three methods for age estimation in children: the measurements of open apices in tooth roots (T), the ratio between the total area of carpal bones and epiphyses of the ulna and radius (HW), and the combined method (THW). The sample consisted of 288 Caucasian Italian children (152 boys and 136 girls) aged between 5 and 15 years. Accuracy was determined as the difference between estimated age and chronological age, and accuracy was assessed by analyzing individuals' orthopantomograms and hand-wrist radiographs. Accuracies were 0.41 years for girls and 0.54 years for boys with the THW method; for the HW method, 1.00 years for girls and 0.92 years for boys; and for the T method, 0.62 years for girls and 0.71 years for boys. THW is the most accurate technique for age estimation in these children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate age estimation has always been a problem for forensic scientists, and apposition of secondary dentine is often used as an indicator of age. Cameriere et al. studied the pulp/tooth area ratio by peri-apical X-ray images of the canines, to observe the apposition of secondary dentine. The present study examines the application of this technique in a Mexican identified sample coming from the Department of Physical Anthropology of the INAH, at Mexico City. The main aim of this work is to test the reliability of this method in a skeletal sample of a specific population, different from the samples used for its development. The obtained regression model explained 96.2% of total variance ( R2 = 0.962) with a standard error of estimate of 1.909 and a standard deviation of 1.947. These results demonstrate great reliability and that the age/secondary dentine relationship is not variable in this specific population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although several papers have recently been devoted to establishing the validity of identification using the ear, this part of the human body still remains under exploited in forensic science. The perfect overlap of two images of the same ear is not really possible, but photographs of the ears as a reliable means of inferring the identity of an individual are poorly treated in the literature. In this study, we illustrate a simple, reproducible method, which divides the photograph of an ear into four parts—helix, anti helix, concha, and lobe—by means of a suitable grid of four straight lines. Although the division does not follow exact anatomical features, their edges do join anatomical points which are more easily identifiable. Measurement of certain areas of these parts can be combined to produce a code allowing personal identification. This method produces false positive identifications of <0.2%. Last, the repeatability and reproducibility aspects of the method are tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the size of the pulp canal, caused by apposition of secondary dentine, are the best morphometric parameters for estimating age by X-rays. The apposition of secondary dentine is the most frequently used method for age estimation in adult subjects. In two previous papers, we studied the application of the pulp/tooth area ratio by peri-apical X-rays as an indicator of age at death. The aim of the present study was to test the accuracy of age evaluation by combined analysis of labio-lingual and mesial peri-apical X-rays of lower and upper canines. A total of 200 such X-rays were assembled from 57 male and 43 female skeletons of Caucasian origin, aged between 20 and 79 years. For each skeleton, dental maturity was evaluated by measuring the pulp/tooth area ratio according to labio-lingual and mesial X-rays on upper ( x1, x2) and lower ( x3, x4) canines. Very good agreement was found between intra-observer measurements. Statistical analysis showed that all variables x1, x2, x3, and x4 and the first-order interaction between x1 and x3 contributed significantly to the fit, so that they were included in the regression model, yielding the following regression formula: The residual standard error of estimated ages was 3.62 years, with 94 degrees of freedom, and the median of the residuals was −0.155 years, with an interquartile range of 4.96 years. The accuracy of the method was ME = 2.8 years, where ME is the mean prediction error. The model also explained 94% of total variance ( R2 = 0.94). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of age in individuals has received considerable attention in forensic science, in which it is a widely used method for individual identification, together with paleo-demographic analyses to establish mortality patterns in past populations. The present investigation, which is a continuation of a previously published pilot study, was conducted to examine the possible application of the pulp/tooth area ratio by peri-apical images as an indicator of age at death. A total of 200 peri-apical X-rays of upper and lower canines were assembled from 57 male and 43 female skeletons of Caucasian origin, aged between 20 and 79 years. They belong to the Frassetto osteological collection of Sassari (Sardinia) and are housed in the Museum of Anthropology, Department of Experimental and Evolutionistic Biology, University of Bologna. For each skeleton, dental maturity was evaluated by measuring the pulp/tooth area ratio on upper ( x1) and lower ( x2) canines. Very good agreement was found between intraobserver measurements. Statistical analysis was performed in order to obtain multiple regression formulae for dental age calculation, with chronological age as dependent variable, and gender, and upper and lower canines as independent variables. Stepwise regression analysis showed that gender did not contribute significantly to the fit ( p=0.881) whereas variables x1 and x2 and the first-order interaction between them did. These two variables explained 92.5% of variations in estimated chronological age and the residual standard error was 4.06 years. Lastly, two simple linear regression equations were obtained for age estimation using canines from the maxilla and mandible separately. Both models explained 86% of variations in estimated chronological age and allowed an age-at-death estimate with a residual standard error of about 5.4 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of age of skeletal remains is one of the most complex questions for anthropologists. The most common macroscopic methods are based on dental wear and histological evaluation of bone remodeling. These methods are often qualitative, require great technical expertise, and have proved inexact in the estimation of ages over 50 years. Certain dental methods investigate the apposition of secondary dentine, in the study of tooth cross-sections, and X-rays to study width, height, and pulp area. The primary author previously proposed a method of estimating the age of a living person based on the pulp/tooth ratio (PTR) method in the upper canines. The aim of the present study is to verify whether the PTR method can also be used to estimate the age at death of skeletal remains. This paper investigates the study of historical samples of known age as a means to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the importance of M. Yoshino's proposed identification system of frontal sinus patterns. Background of the identification system; Daubert Guidelines for determining whether evidence is scientifically based and therefore admissible under Federal rule; Comparison between ante-mortem and postmortem X-rays; Attempt of estimating the probability of misclassification.

Examines a skeleton, kept at the Church of Santa Chiara in Urbino, Italy, which was traditionally thought to be that of the Duchess Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere (1493-1550). Suspicions as to whether or not the remains might belong to another important personage of the Urbino Renaissance, Battista Sforza (1447-1472); External observation of the skull; Odontological examination of the mandible; Age estimates of the skeleton consistent with the age at death of della Rovere; Results which highlight the potential of forensic methods as a key to understanding the work of earlier painters.

Describes a method for assessing adult age based on the relationship between age and measurement of the pulp/tooth area ratio of the second molar teeth. Possibility of involving the third molar as a decisive element for dental age estimation; Suggestion that a logistic model must produce a valid assessment of the probability of being of age to be of use in forensic odontology.

A response by Stefano De Luca and colleagues to a letter to the editor about their article "Age-at-death estimation by pulp/tooth area ratio in canines: study of a 20th-century Mexican sample of prisoners to test Cameriere's method," in the 2011 issue, is presented.

The aims of this study were to verify if frontal sinuses can uniquely identify individuals belonging to family groups using Cameriere methods and to test if kinship can affect the proportion of erroneous identifications. For this purpose, we compared the proportion of false-positive identifications in a sample of 99 individuals within 20 families with a control sample of 98 other individuals without kinship. The results show that the combined use of SOR and the Yoshino code number allows personal identification with a small probability of false positives ( p < 10−6), even when kinship is taken into account. The present research confirms the importance of studying anthropological frameworks for identification, which leads to reliable methods and allows for both quick and economic procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the relationship between age and measurement of the pulp/tooth area ratio on single-rooted teeth in assessing chronological age. Use of stepwise multiple regression models in the study; Tool used in the processing of the radiographic images of canines; Morphological variables recorded from the study; Median of the absolute value of residual errors between actual and estimated ages.

A response by Roberto Cameriere and Luigi Ferrante on the comments about their article "Frontal sinus accuracy in identification as measured by false positives in kin groups," in the 2008 issue is presented.