Navitainuck, Denise U. and Vach, Werner and Pichler, Sandra L. and Alt, Kurt W.. (2022) Age-at-death estimation in archaeological samples: Differences in population means resulting from different aging methods can be predicted from the mean ages of method-specific reference samples. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 32 (6). pp. 1226-1237.
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Abstract
Age mimicry is a well-known phenomenon in the application of osteological age-estimation methods. Age mimicry refers to the fact that predicting age-at-death from a specific trait (age indicator) based on the relation observed in a specific reference sample implies that age estimates to some degree reflect the age structure of the reference sample. In particular, the estimated population mean in a target population in which an age-estimation method is applied is shifted towards the mean in the method-specific reference sample. Consequently, differences in population means between different age-estimation methods in the same target population may be due to differences in mean age of the reference samples used to develop the age-estimation methods. We aim at quantifying the expected magnitude for such differences. Fifteen different traditional age-estimation methods were applied to a sample of 675 adult individuals from the early medieval cemetery of Mannheim-Seckenheim. The relation of the observed estimated population age means and the mean age in the reference samples was analyzed by linear regression. We find that up to 80% of the variation in the estimated population age means can be explained by the variation of the mean age in the reference samples. Furthermore, differences in the magnitude of 3 to 4 years in the mean age between two reference samples can imply a 1-year difference in estimated target population age means. Because large differences in mean age between reference samples used to develop different age-estimation methods are common, some care is needed in interpreting differences between individual age estimates or population mean age estimates in cases where different age-estimation techniques are used.
Faculties and Departments: | 05 Faculty of Science > Departement Umweltwissenschaften > Integrative Biologie > Integrative Prähistorische und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie (IPNA Schünemann) |
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UniBasel Contributors: | Pichler, Sandra L and Vach, Werner and Navitainuck, Denise Ursula and Alt, Kurt W. |
Item Type: | Article, refereed |
Article Subtype: | Research Article |
Publisher: | Wiley |
ISSN: | 1047-482X |
e-ISSN: | 1099-1212 |
Note: | Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article |
Language: | English |
Identification Number: |
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edoc DOI: | |
Last Modified: | 29 Dec 2022 13:25 |
Deposited On: | 29 Dec 2022 13:25 |
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