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Thesis
Age Estimation Using Dental Development And Long Bone Lengths For The Children In The Late Classic Maya Civilization
University of West Florida Libraries
Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida
2024
Abstract
The ancient Maya skeletal collection in Copan, Honduras lacks sufficient research on patterns of childhood growth and development, which is important in understanding biological profile and lived experiences of juveniles. To address this information gap, this study examined 41 juvenile skeletal individuals (1-22 years of age) to reveal the experience of the ancient Maya children. The research question posed here was, Are dental development age estimates of Late Classic Maya children consistent with long bone length age estimate standards derived from modern Western reference populations? Comparisons were made between the observed length of long bones in the Maya sample to the predicted lengths according to Western standards to test applicability of the Western standards for ancient Indigenous samples. As well as a dental development age estimation to a Western predicted age estimation based on the observed measurement of the Copan juveniles. Dental-development-based age estimates served as a control and were treated as the ‘true’ age to which the long bone age estimates were compared. In assessing if Western standards are appropriate for the ancient Maya, the goal was to illuminate factors that could differentially contribute to patterns of growth and development in this population including disease, diet, and skeletally embodied social environments. Researching the experiences of ancient Maya children through growth and development centers the experiences of an often-forgotten social group and creates standards that facilitate accurate age estimation and thus, life histories. The results of this thesis show that long bone age estimate standards from Western populations underestimate the age of ancient Maya children, and a new standard is defined here.
Details
- Title
- Age Estimation Using Dental Development And Long Bone Lengths For The Children In The Late Classic Maya Civilization
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Contributors
- Katherine A. Miller Wolf (Committee Chair)Allysha P. Winburn (Committee Member)Meredith Marten (Committee Member)
- Publisher
- University of West Florida Libraries
- Format
- pdf
- Number of pages
- 140
- Copyright
- © 2024 Meagan P. Pennington
- Identifiers
- 99380551596506600
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- Anthropology; University of West Florida; Master of Arts (MA)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida