Estimation de l’âge au décès des sujets adultes à partir du squelette : des raisons d’espérer

Abstract

The estimation of the age at death of adult individuals based on skeletal material is one of the most difficult problems in anthropology. We present in this paper the reasons why current methods are not reliable: (1) variation in the process of biological aging and the value of skeletal and dental indicators; (2) methodological biases. With these analyses, methodological steps are proposed for the development of reliable methods for palaeobiological studies.

Keywords

• senescence
• variability
• bone indicator
• assessment
• methods
• reliability