Odontometric sex estimation on three populations of the Iron Age from Abruzzo region (central–southern Italy)

• The degree of sexual dimorphism was determined in the permanent dentition.
• Logistic regression equations were performed for sex estimation based on metric data.
• These equations were used to estimate the sex of subadult and adult individuals.
• Odontometrics allowed us to increase the sex estimation with high accuracy.
• This methodology will allow us to perform a more complete paleodemographic profile.

BackgroundIn archaeological contexts, sex identification is a necessary step for a complete reconstruction of the biological profile of the individuals and to know demographic patterns of the population, nutritional stress, diseases, growth and development, and distribution of pathological conditions.MethodsThis study is based on the skeletal remains of 149 individuals from three protohistoric populations in close temporal and geographic proximity in Abruzzo region (central–southern Italy): Opi, Alfedena and Bazzano. It has been possible to develop logistic regression equations based on dental measurements of permanent teeth of adult individuals whose sex had previously been estimated based on pelvic and cranial features. These equations were subsequently applied to the permanent dentition of immature individuals and adult individuals whose sex was estimated as uncertain or unknown in order to estimate their sex.ResultsThe mandibular canine is the tooth with the greatest sexual dimorphism in adults, followed by both maxillary and mandibular first and second molars, providing a correct assignment of sex ranging from 83.7% and 95.9% of cases, depending on the dimensions used for the construction of these equations. Of the 29 individuals in the target sample (14 adultus, 10 juvenilis and 5 infans), sex estimation was possible for 23 (10 adultus, 8 juvenilis and 5 infans), representing an applicability rate of 79.31% of the individuals.ConclusionsThe results indicate that odontometrics is a useful tool for sex estimation and allows to increase the data to perform more complete paleodemographic studies on archaeological populations.