He or she? The Use of an Integrated Approach for Sex Determination in the Bioarcheological Research

Authors

  • Federica Cintura Center of Molecular Anthropology for ancient DNA studies Department of Biology, Laboratory of Skeletal Biology and Forensic Anthropology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
  • Marica Baldoni PhD Program in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
  • Flavio De Angelis Center of Molecular Anthropology for ancient DNA studies Department of Biology, Laboratory of Skeletal Biology and Forensic Anthropology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
  • Paola Catalano Anthropology Service of the Special Superintendance of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscapes of Rome
  • Francesca Romana Stasolla Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma
  • Valentina Gazzaniga Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Unit of History of Medicine and Bioethics, Sapienza University of Rome
  • Olga Rickards Center of Molecular Anthropology for ancient DNA studies Department of Biology, Laboratory of Skeletal Biology and Forensic Anthropology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
  • Cristina Martínez-Labarga Center of Molecular Anthropology for ancient DNA studies Department of Biology, Laboratory of Skeletal Biology and Forensic Anthropology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13133/2531-7288/2692

Keywords:

gender, sex, archaeology

Abstract

This research aims to determine the sex of non-adult skeletal remains from two archaeological sites dating to the RomanImperial and Medieval periods by using morphological, morphometrics and molecular approaches. The determination of sex from non-adult remains is a debated issue in the literature even though it has important implications in the palaeodemographic reconstruction of past populations. Concordance between the different approaches was obtained in the 63% of cases (N=19). The obtained results although preliminary are encouraging even though much research is needed for enlarging the sample size and for applying the cutting-edge High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) technologies.

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Published

2023-03-03

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 3 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

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