Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Elham Farnam ¹
• Mostafa Dehpahlavan ²

¹ university of Tehran

² University of Tehran

Abstract

Estimating the age of death has always been a challenging subject in bioarchaeology . Various methods of age estimating based on bone and dental indicators have been devised. Pulp/tooth area ratio has been employed as a method of age estimation. With aging pulp volume reduces due to the deposition of secondary dentine. Although this method has been tested and validated by researchers, it has not been investigated in ancient human remains . The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of age estimation method on human remains by assessing pulp/tooth area ratio, especially in cases where other age estimation indicators (pelvis and skull) are not useful. In this study, 21 canines from 9 buried individuals in the eastern cemetery of Iron Age II and III of Qareh Tape of Sagzabad , were selected for age estimation; The age of human skeletons were estimated using four different methods such as closure of skull sutures in two different ways, dental wear and eruption of third molars. Based on the obtained data and comparing them with each other, the method of calculating pulp/tooth area ratio should be used cautiously during the period of third molar eruption .

Keywords

• Bioarchaeology
• Age Estimation
• Pulp/Tooth Ratio
• Qareh Tape of Sagzabad
• Iranian Central Plateau