Timothy P. Gocha (Anthropology), along with co-authors Alexander Robling (Indiana University) and Sam D. Stout (Ohio State University), recently published a book chapter,
The use of quantitative bone histology (histomorphometry) can be a useful tool for anthropologists to help estimate age at death from an unidentified set of human skeletal remains. As with any method of analysis, practitioners must be familiar with its biological basis, sources of error, and limitations. The chapter discusses the physiological basis for histomorphometric methods. It also addresses important issues, such as sex and population variation, and the effects of physical activity and pathology, which should be considered when using cortical bone histomorphometry (quantitative histology) to estimate age at death for forensic and/or bioarchaeological investigations.
