Comparison of Two Methods of Estimating Age at Death in a Chilean Preceramic Population

Abstract

A method of histological determination of age at death, using the anterior cortex of the femur, was tested on a group of adult Preceramic skeletons from Chile (ca. 3300–3000 years BP). These skeletons had been previously studied by another investigator who assigned sex and morphological ages. Comparison of the results of the two methods of ageing indicates that, although there is considerable agreement between them at younger ages (20–39 years), discrepancies increase at older ages. It is clear that the morphological method is ‘truncated’, i.e. it does not take into account the possibility that some individuals could live past the age of 45 years. On the other hand, the open-ended histological method gives a realistic age range of 20–65 years for the Preceramic group, but an unrealistic number of individuals are aged 50 years and older. It is concluded that, in spite of certain advantages, the histological method must be used with caution in archaeological studies because exfoliation of peripheral unremodelled bone lamellae can cause over-ageing as deeper, more remodelled areas come to lie nearer the periosteal surface. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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