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Sexual dimorphism of the cranial base and bony labyrinth: archaeo-anthropological and forensic implications.

par Boucherie, Alexandra ;Polet, Caroline ;Lefèvre, Philippe ;Vercauteren, Martine
Référence 20ème anniversaire de la Forensic Anthropology Society of Europe (FASE) (30 août au 1er septembre 2023: Marseille)
Publication Publié, 2023-08-30

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Résumé :

Estimating the biological sex of an individual from its skeletal remains is a fundamental task of any anthropologistworking in archaeological and forensic contexts and it must be done using reproducible, reliable, and validated methods. Nevertheless, when the optimal preservation of the remains is affected, availability and accuracy of such methods are compromised, even more for subadults or burnt remains. In that matter, a promising path for sexidentification of fragmentary remains lies in relying on a highly dimorphic bony element that show taphonomic assets. Combining osteometry and new digital tools, this research contributes to this discussion by investigating the sexual dimorphism of the cranial base (i.e., occipital and temporal bones) and the bony labyrinth of the inner ear. The analysis was performed on 611 skulls and 121 bony labyrinths of Western-European individuals, subadults and adults, of known age and sex. It reveals how the sexual dimorphism of the temporal bone, especially around the mastoid process, is hugely marked as soon as the puberty sets off. It also shows that the dimorphism of the adult cranial base is visible and quantifiable in a virtual environment. Besides, this study demonstrates that an age-independent sex estimation method cannot be designed on the bony labyrinth due to postnatal significant changes. Thanks to this research, new sex predictive models adapted to human fragmentary remains have been established and validated, using a decision threshold of 0.70. The accuracy of sex estimation equations was found to be as follows: 13 models on the adult cranial base (77-87%), 3 models on the adult bony labyrinth (76-83%) and 4 on the subadult labyrinth (76-84%). Thus, this work provides new insights on cranial sexual dimorphism and discusses minimal standard requirements that are necessary for guaranteeing valuable future sexing methods.