Transition Analysis as a Solution for Fragmentary Remains: Estimating Age-at-Death for a Skeletal Collection from Gurat, France

Abstract

Transition Analysis is an age-at-death estimation method developed in 2002. While originally developed using the same skeletal features as other methods, Transition Analysis was recently expanded to include121 features from across the skeleton. This makes Transition Analysis a potential solution for cases where common age-at-death estimation sites are missing or damaged. In this study, eight of the individuals from the Gurat skeletal collection are aged using Transition Analysis. The individuals were also aged using traditional age-at-death estimation methods for comparative purposes. Finally, the individuals were aged using only the lower limbs to simulate a challenging recovery scenario. The goal of this study was to promote Transition Analysis as an option for age-at-death estimation in cases of fragmentary remains and varied preservation within a collection. The results of the study show that Transition Analysis can estimate age in cases where traditional methods are not applicable. Transition Analysis is also able to estimate age-at-death using just the lower limbs. However, the results were extremely imprecise. This study found Transition Analysis to be a promising but imperfect solution to estimating age-at-death for fragmentary skeletal remains.