Forensic Age-at-Death Estimation from the Human Sacrum*

Abstract: A new method is described here that incorporates seven developmental and degenerative changes for estimating chronological age from morphological features of the human sacrum. The construction of this method involved multiple stages of trait identification, character-state definition and age correlation, rank-order phase development, and percent-correct sample testing with phase and sample aggregation, all of which resulted in a six-phase component system for application on modern individuals. This phase system was first developed on European American male and female samples from the Hamann-Todd collection; then tested on African American male and female Hamann-Todd samples as well as European American male and females from the WM Bass collection to examine possible sex and/or ancestry differences. Variation in age estimates due to sex and ancestry was negligible; thus, the multiple samples were all pooled creating a robust method with a large sample size. Overall age ranges increase in width at two standard deviations as is expected from degenerative age-related processes but retain utility in forensic situations.