Progress in forensic anthropology: the 20th century

Anthropological contribution to forensic sciences has been multifaceted and the progress has been remarkable in the last quarter of this century. The field has brought together scientists from an around the world. The purpose of this paper is to present a special issue on forensic anthropological re search. Some of the papers cover age estimation from the ankle and knee epi physes (India), basioccipital synchondrosis (also India), sternal end rib m etamorphosis in Turks, and histomorphometry of the Japanese. Sex determinat ion from the South African cranium and Mongoloid humerus are the subject of two papers. Factors of individualization include a comparison of photograp hic images using neural network, bone trabecular radiography, determination of handedness from the humerus, time since death using Po-210 to Pb-210 ra tio, and changes in the mineral content of bone after burial. From the pape rs in this special issue it can be concluded that there will be integration of many areas of forensic sciences to dear with anthropological issues in the 21st century. Estimation of time since death will be based on new and m ore precise techniques. Further research is needed to develop population sp ecific osteological standards for populations of Africa, central and southe ast Asia and Pacific region. In addition, there will be an increased intere st in the study of living people. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. Al l rights reserved.