LANDMARK BASED SEX DISCRIMINATION ON THE CRANIA OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL GREEK POPULATIONS. A COMPARATIVE STUDY BASED ON THE CRANIAL SEXUAL DIMORPHISM OF A MODERN GREEK POPULATION

Abstract

The estimation of sex is a fundamental step for physical anthropologists. The present study confirms the presence of sexual dimorphism in cranial traits of a modern Greek population and produces sex predicting logistic regression equations, which are subsequently applied on the crania of archaeological Greek populations. This study uses 24 landmarks and 25 traits based on distance and angle measurements. Equations, were formulated for the cranium in whole, as well as, isolated cranial regions and single traits. The application of these equations on the archaeological Greek populations yielded an accuracy of classification over 70% in the sphenoid region, the maxilla and the cranium in whole and for three single traits. Hence, the results suggest that our equations based on the modern Greek population can successfully be used in sex prediction of archaeological Greek populations.