A method for establishing the age of subadults

Accurate estimates of age-at-death of subadult human skeletal remains are limited because of the dearth of information on the covariance among reliable indicators in recent samples of children. To obtain these kinds of data, namely patterns of maturation among dental development, epiphyseal union, and long bone growth, we focused on a radiographic method using recently decreased children. A total of 183 subadult cadavers were examined using X-radiographs of the six long bones and the mandibular dentition with measurements and evaluations thereof. The results of this study show that cadaver samples can relatively inexpensively, provide accurate and precise information on the covariance of subadult age indicators and thus can contribute to the formation of age standards for population lacking such data.