A TEST AND CORRECTION OF THE CLAVICLE METHOD OF STOUT AND PAINE FOR HISTOLOGICAL AGE ESTIMATION OF SKELETAL REMAINS

The histological method developed by Stout and Paine ([1992] Am. J. Ph ys, Antropol. 87:111-115) for estimating age at death using the clavic le is tested on a known age independent sample from a nineteenth centu ry cemetery near Spitalfriedhof St. Johann in Basel, Switzerland. The mean absolute difference between reported ages and histologically pred icted ages is 5.5 years. Mean predicted age for the sample is differen t from mean reported age. This difference is accounted for by differen ces in the age distributions between the original autospy sample used to derive the histological age-predicting formula and the cemetery sam ple, and an inherent loss of reliability of histological age predictio ns for the skeletal remains of older individuals, A new formula based upon the combined original autopsy sample of Stout and Paine (1992) an d the Swiss cemetery sample is presented, It is recommended that this formula be used when estimating ages for older individuals or archaeol ogical skeletal samples. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.