The Difficulty of Sexing Skeletons from Unknown Populations

Table 1

Methods used for the determination of sex in this study.

Method number	Description of method	Collection used	Possible categories	Author and date
1	4x femoral measurements	Skeletal specimens from London, England	Female; cautiously female; ambiguous; cautiously male; male	Pearson and Bell 1917–1919 [18]
2	5x talar/calcaneal discriminant functions	Terry Collection, Smithsonian Institution	Male or female	Steele 1976 [11]
3	2x humeral discriminant functions	Dart Collection, University of Witwatersrand; Pretoria Collection, University of Pretoria	Male or female	Steyn and Işcan 1999 [10]
4	2x cranial discriminant functions	Skeletal collection, University of Helsinki	Male or female	Kajanoja 1966 [12]
5	5x cranial discriminant functions	Dart Collection, University of Witwatersrand	Male or female	Dayal et al. 2008 [13]
6	5x scapular discriminant functions	Tell El-Armana burial site	Male or female	Dabbs 2010 [14]
7	10x scapular discriminant functions	Skeletal collection, University of Bari	Male or female	Di Vella et al. 1994 [15]
8	13x morphological traits of skull	Todd Collection, Western Reserve University	Male or female	Krogman and Iscan 1986 [8]
9	16x morphological traits of pelvis	Todd Collection, Western Reserve University	Male or female	Krogman and Iscan 1986 [8]
10	Shape of greater sciatic notch	Hamann-Todd Collection, Cleveland; Museum of Natural History; Terry Collection, Smithsonian Institution; St. Bride’s Collection, London	Male; probable male/ambiguous; female	Walker 2005 [16]
11	Shape of ventral arc, subpubic concavity, ischiopubic ramus	Terry Collection, Smithsonian Institution	Male or female	Phenice 1969 [9]
12	Posterior mandibular ramus flexure	Dart Collection, University of Witwatersrand	Male or female	Loth and Henneberg 1996 [1]
13	Shape of olecranon fossa, angle of medial epicondyle, trochlear extension	Dart Collection, University of Witwatersrand; Pretoria Collection, University of Pretoria	Female; cautiously female; ambiguous; cautiously male; male	Vance et al. 2011 [17]
14	22x morphological traits from the skull, pelvis, and femur	Secondary sources	Male or female	Acsadi and Nemeskeri 1970 [7]
15	5x morphological traits of the skull, scored categorically for discriminant analysis	Hamann-Todd Collection, Cleveland; Museum of Natural History; Terry Collection, Smithsonian Institution; St. Bride’s Collection, London	Male or female	Walker 2008 [19]