The Effects of Experimental Whole-Body Burning on Histological Age-at-Death Estimation from Human Cortical Bone and Dental Cementum.

Biology (Basel)

Department of Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology Center, Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.

Published: October 2022

Whole-body donations (n = 6) were placed in various experimental fire-death scenarios to understand the histological effects of thermal alteration on bones and teeth. Midshaft samples of the femur, 6th rib, and metatarsal were removed from each donor pre- and post-burning to examine histomorphometric differences and test established age-at-death estimation methods. Dental samples were taken post-burning to test the applicability of dental cementum analysis for age-at-death estimation. Significant differences in osteon area or Haversian canal area between some pre- and post-burn samples were found although no patterns related to temperature or element were observable. The femoral age estimates across pre- and post-burn samples were 91% accurate across all donors. The point age estimates from the ribs compared to known age were significantly different (t(10) = 6.88, p < 0.001) with an average difference of −18.53 years. Dental age estimates of post-burn samples were not significantly different from the known donor age (t(3) = −0.74, p = 0.512) with an average difference of −3.96 years. Overall, the results of this study show that thermally altered remains can be used for histologic age-at-death analysis of cortical bone and dental cementum, within certain burning parameters.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9687164PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology11111569DOI Listing

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