Osteology

Osteolgoy, the study of bones, can reveal a lot about how an individual lived their life but there are also many limitations to the kind of information that can be produced by osteology.  For example, when aging a skeleton, the most tool in age determination is the ossification or fusion of growth plates in the bone.  Each bone in the body has one or more centers of ossification which happens during a particular age range in a human's life.  By analyzing an assortment of bones, an approximate age of an individual can be determined only if the bones are still maturing.  Once all the bones are ossified, around the age of 27 when the S1 suture closes, determining the age gets mroe difficult and less precise to narrow down.  From here, the breakdown and wear and tear of the bones are used to determine age.  One of the most useful bones to have with this type of age determination is the ox coxa which contains both the aricular surface and public symphysis which gives an relatively accurate range of the individual's age.