Dental wear and oral pathology among sex determined Early Bronze-Age children from Franzhausen I, Lower Austria

Dietary Variation Among Herculaneum's Victims of Mt. Vesuvius via Dental Microwear Texture Analysis

The Roman site of Herculaneum provides an extraordinary opportunity to reconstruct ancient diets in the context of life course theory because everyone died simultaneously due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

OBJECTIVES

The current study addresses three primary hypotheses: (1) Subadult diets changed as children aged, (2) adult diets differed from subadult diets, and (3) male and female diets differed as they age.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study includes dental microwear texture data from 58 adults (age 16+) and 23 subadults (age 0-16) recovered by Sarah Bisel from within and near to storage rooms adjacent to Herculaneum's beach. The adults include 27 females and 31 males. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) employed standard procedures: data collection used a white-light confocal profiler at 100×. The DMTA variables were complexity, anisotropy, textural fill volume, and scale of maximum complexity. Statistical methods used Bayesian versions of analysis of variance and correlation (Bayes factors above 1.5 were considered meaningful and above 3.0 significant) as well as discriminant function analysis and binary logistic regression.

RESULTS

No differences emerged among the children. Adult diets were significantly lower than the subadults for anisotropy. Among the adults, age affected the females more, particularly for anisotropy.

DISCUSSION

Subadult diets did not vary by age, but they did vary. The lower adult anisotropy indicates each adult ate a greater variety of foods compared to the subadults. As females aged, however, their diets became more restricted compared to the males. Overall, age and sex affected the Herculaneum diet.

No Bones About It: Sex Is Binary

Anthropologists have led the way in formulating techniques that reveal skeletal differences between males and females. Understanding of physical differences in the pelvis related to childbirth, hormonal impacts on bones, and extensive comparative studies have provided anthropologists with an array of traits and measurements that help them estimate sex using just bones. Forensic anthropologists and bioarcheologists are improving their ability to differentiate males and females by increasing research on a variety of postcranial bones and through the use of molecular data, especially new methods called proteomics, to identify sex in prepubescent juveniles. As remains from more cultures and time periods are studied, sex identification will continue to improve, because skeletal sex differences are in large part biologically determined. Yet, anthropologists have also been at the forefront of arguing that sex lies on a spectrum. Anthropologists who view sex as on a spectrum may deter sex identification progress; from their perspective, an individual of an undetermined sex may just be a nonbinary individual. Anthropologists who consider sex is on a spectrum are coming to this conclusion in part because they are looking for anatomical ideals, mistaking pathology for variation, and confusing independent variables with dependent variables. Nonetheless, anthropologists need to continue to improve sex identification techniques to reconstruct the past accurately, which may reveal less strict sex roles than previously presumed and help with the identification of crime victims. Forensic anthropologists should also increase their efforts to identify whether individuals have undergone medical procedures intended to change one's gender due to the current rise in transitioning individuals.

Comparing Walker's (2008) skull trait sex estimation standard to proteomic sex estimation for a group of South Asian individuals

This research assesses the potential for misidentification of sex in individuals of South Asian ancestry using the Walker (2008) morphological skull sex estimation standard [1]. Chromosomal sex was assessed using proteomic analysis targeting sex chromosome-specific amylogenic peptides. Results showed that the Walker method produced incorrect classification for 36.7 % of individuals. Overwhelmingly, those incorrectly assigned were chromosomally male. Misidentification was due to males within the group having lower trait scores (i.e., more gracile traits) than the standard would predict. There was also a high level of overlap in trait scores between male and females indicating reduced expression of sexual dimorphism. The use of established multivariate statistical techniques improved accuracy of sex estimation in some cases, but larger osteological data sets from South Asian individuals are required to develop population-specific standards. We suggest that peptide analysis may provide a useful tool for the forensic anthropologist when assessing sex in populations without population specific osteological standards.