An anthropometric method for sex determination from the mandible:test on British Medieval skeletal collections

Abstract

Sex determination is a vital part of the analysis of skeletal remains and the creation of biological profiles that aid in identification.The pelvis and skull are the regions usually employed byanthropologists and produce very good results. However, themandible, being a very durable bone and frequently preserved hasnot received the attention that other skeletal elements have. There are some morphological methods for sexing the mandible, howevermetrics are considered to be more objective and easier to replicate.This study uses the measurements of the bimental breadthand the corpus thickness of the mandible. Univariate and multivariateanalysis was carried out to create discriminant functionequations. These equations can be used to sex a mandible withoverall accuracy rates as high as 77.3%. The results of the presentresearch are similar to those of other studies and indicate thatmandibular metrics can be relied upon for sex determination,especially in cases where other elements are not preserved