Edinburgh Unit for Forensic Anthropology

The word ‘bone’ refers both to a formed structure and to the material of which it is made.  Bone material is highly metabolically active and at any point in time it offers a record of whom it belongs to and what past history it has been subjected to in terms of loading, disease, diet and environmental influences.  Analysis of cross sections of cortical bone from the mid-thigh have revealed that certain physico-chemical and mechanical characteristics of bone -as a material- can be linked to the age of the subject.  We have developed a technique which can reverse this process so as to predict ‘age at death’ by using a set of laboratory based analytical tests.  The analysis requires uses small amount of tissue, as may be the case in dismembered bodies or where the corpses have sustained excessive damage or fragmentation.  Age is one of the four important attributes that a forensic anthropologist is called to answer together with sex, stature and ethnic background, and as such it is very important for identification purposes.  Current anthropological methods often are unable to determined age better than saying a “mature adult” and other examination of skeletal features offers accuracy no better than ±15 years.  The present method uses constitutional and/or heterogeneity related changes in the inner structure and properties of the bone matrix and its elements to produce through a series of algorithms prediction values for the age of the individual, which are in most cases within ±3 years of the actual values.