Estimation of sex from the hyoid body in skeletal individuals from archeological sites.
Recent forensic studies have shown that the hyoid bone is a sexually dimorphic element of the human skeleton. Given the advanced techniques of collecting human remains in archeological and forensic contexts, the recovery of hyoid bones is now more frequent in skeletal samples. For that reason the authors propose a new method for estimating sex based on hyoid bodies from archeological sites. The study has been conducted on well-preserved hyoids of skeletal remains of 64 adult individuals (44 males and 20 females) dated from the pre-Roman to the medieval periods. The authors considered 10 linear measurements of the hyoid body. The most significant measurements showing sexual dimorphism are the body height, body length, and the maximum and minimum diameter of the articular facet for the greater horn. Discriminant function analysis achieved the allocation accuracy between 75.0% and 88.0%, depending on the measurement collected. This method represents a new, useful and easy way for increasing biological information when assessing the sex of adult human remains from an archeological sample.
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
R
R
D'Anastasio
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy. Electronic address: joanviba@ugr.es.
J
J
Viciano
Laboratory of Biostatistics, Department of Biomedical Science, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Via dei Vestini, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
M
M
Di Nicola
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
D T
DT
Cesana
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
M
M
Sciubba
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
M
M
Del Cimmuto
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
A
A
Paolucci
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
A
A
Fazio
University Museum, State University "G. d'Annunzio", Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, 66100 Chieti, Italy.
L
L
Capasso
D000328:Adult; D001106:Archaeology; D005260:Female; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D006928:Hyoid Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012384:Rome; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult