Reaching new heights: Testing the performance of metric approaches to estimate stature from burned skeletal remains

Bone heat-induced changes complicate osteometric stature estimation of human remains from forensic settings. The validity of current methods has not been tested to a great extent. Our aim was to determine how precise are stature estimations obtained from three different approaches, namely by using (i) Rosing's method (Rosing 1977), (ii) a 10% shrinkage correction factor (Strzalko et al. 1972) and (iii) chemosteometry (Goncalves et al. 2020). For this purpose, pre- and post-burned head measurements from the humerus, radius and femur were used. The sample comprised 46 human skeletons of known sex and age-at-death. These were experimentally burnt to maximum temperatures ranging from 700 to 1100 degrees C (attained after 90-188 min) for other research purposes. Stature estimations were performed through measurements in both pre-burned and burned bones using the three approaches and based on the method of Olivier and Tissier (1975). Mean absolute differences and the relative technical errors of measurements (TEM%) between the pre-burned and the estimations were calculated. Absolute mean differences indicated that the chemosteometric approach allowed for potentially more precise stature estimations than the other two procedures. However, the TEM% was very low for all approaches (smaller or close to 1%), and stature estimations were thus well within the error margin reported by Olivier and Tissier (1975). Results suggest that the chemosteometric approach enables more accurate predictions of the actual heat-induced shrinkage of each bone thus rendering more precise stature estimations. Nonetheless, the other procedures also provided quite reliable estimations although they require confirmation that the bone is calcined.

Automated summary

Bone heat-induced changes complicate osteometric stature estimation of human remains from forensic settings. The validity of current methods has not been tested to a great extent. Stature estimations obtained from chemosteometry were found to be more precise than other approaches.