Age estimation accuracies from black South African os coxae

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 Brooks and Suchey (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. Therefore, the following study aimed to assess the accuracy of the estimation of 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 known age of both sexes using both left and right ossa coxae were investigated. Age was estimated using descriptions stipulated by Brooks and Suchey (1990) and Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002). Correlation coefficients, inaccuracies and bias were calculated for both skeletal elements for both sexes and sides. 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. Overall, the pubic symphysis outperformed the auricular surface, even though the method described by Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002) is considered more reliable. It is advised that these two methods be improved to produce better accuracies, particularly when applying the methods to a black South African population.