The use of 3D methods in osteobiography: an added-value in determining skeletal identity

Abstract : One of the first steps of an osteo-anthropological analysis is the sex and age determination of human skeletal remains. However, there is a great variability between individuals and populations, in different rates of growth and development, for example. For this reason, there are many methods that constantly attempt to propose age at death estimation as precisely as possible. These methods can be based on the study of osteological markers and measurements, such as bone length,  or  state of epiphyseal fusion, as well as dental maturation  or eruption [1, 2]. Today these methods  are improved by the emergence of new techniques such as 3D imaging. This 3D approach has been used successfully in biological anthropology for age and sex estimation. Furthermore, as an individual's identity cannot be summarized by age and sex alone and since osteological studies allow us to document some aspects of lifestyle such as diet or health  status, these  3D methods offer an added-value for retrospective  diagnosis in paleopathology. [3]

The aim of this work is to present case studies using 3D methods in order to show their many different possibilities of use. One of the main tools used in 3D methods is the CT-scan ( Computed Tomography), which allows to obtain 3D images of the studied abjects. ln the case of remains found in an archaeological context,  it often  happens  that pieces of bone are missing or fragmented, these methods can then be used to digitally  reconstruct  them from the bones found. [4, 5] These reconstructions then open the way to new studies  that were not possible  before  allowing  new approaches in the identification of bone remains [6] and as in the case of the skull of Qafzeh 11, to propose a retrospective diagnosis [7]

Even today, we realize that biological identity greatly conditions our place in society. There is therefore a clear link between biological and social identities. The improvement  of identification methods not only makes it possible to understand who the individual being studied was but also allows us to place that individual in a socio-cultural context.