Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 93. (Budapest 2001)

Csapó, J., Bernert, Zs. , Csapó, Zs. , Pohn, G. , Csapó-Kiss, Zs. , Költő, L. , Szikossy, I. ; Némethy, S.: Introduction of amino acid racemisation based age estimation into paleoanthropological [sic] research

INTRODUCTION The possibly most accurate estimation of age at the time of death is a significant part of thé study of historical populations. In this paper we report the results achieved by an age estimation method that so far was not utilised for the anthropological analysis of historical populations. In everyday practice age means the timespan between the birth and death of any individual human being. It is traditionally measured in years, months, weeks, etc. In other words it is calendar or chronological age. The usual age estimation methods of historical anthropology observe and analyse the changes occurring on the skeleton and on the teeth with the progress ot age. Growth, maturation and aging are all processes that leave their marked, characteristic traces on human bones and teeth, therefore the estimation of the so called skeletal and dental ages could be founded on these. Skeletal and dental ages come from the biological age of any given individual. If and when the person's biological age is close to his or her calendar age our estimate for his or her skeletal (or dental) age can fall very close to his or her calendar age (UBELAKER 1989). This way we are able to produce an indirect estimation of calendar age via biological age determination. When estimating age the anthropologist analyses ontogenesis, the biological aging of the human organism. These processes are determined by a multitude of external (environmental) and internal (genetic) factors. Chronological age runs at a steady pace, but the passing of biological age can be and really is very varied between individuals and even within one human frame too, among its constituent parts. This is the reason for which we cannot achieve a truly accurate calibration of our age measuring methods compared to the passing of chronological time: this sort of calibration could be nothing else but an individual one. As biological and calendar ages often do not concur, chronological age in paleoanthropology may be estimated only within certain intervals (5yrs at least). There can be no other realistic aim for us but to score within these limits with the greatest plausibility possible. Some constituents of the human body, such as teeth, are easy to examine even centuries after the death of the individual, as their changes are not significantly affected by the environment. Their analysis could significantly improve the accuracy of age estimation. A REVIEW OF AMINO ACID RACEMISATION RESEARCH HELFMAN & BADA (1975) were the first to declare that the aspartic acid racemisation process within teeth could be utilised to estimate the age of living ani-