ABSTRACT
For the purposes of this chapter, adult age is considered to be 18 years of age and older. †e methods employed in adult age determination are largely dependent on the skeletal elements available for analysis and, unlike age assessment methods in the juvenile and adolescent, which rely on growth and developmental processes, are largely concerned with degenerative events, both within the dentition and the skeleton. In the past decade, the majority of research conducted in relation to ageing of the adult skeleton has concentrated on testing and re˜ning methods developed in the 20th century;
Introduction 29 Adult Age Determination 30 Ossi˜cation 31 †e Skull 33 Dentition 34 Rib Morphology 36 Pelvis 38 Bone Histology 39 Conclusion 40 References 41 Bibliography 42
General 42 Ossi˜cation Patterns 45 †e Skull 47 Dentition 48 Ribs 55 Pelvic Morphology 56 Histology 58 Other 59
this chapter examines this literature. Due to the large number of references produced over the last decade, rather than place these in the text, they are presented at the end of this chapter as a bibliography, which provides a guide to this subject area. †e References section includes only citations mentioned speci˜cally in the text discussion. Key texts on the subject from before 2000 are also included.
