Application of the Suchey–Brooks system of pubic age estimation to recent Japanese skeletal material

Abstract

The Suchey–Brooks system, based on a collection of pubic bones from autopsied individuals in the United States with known ages at death, has gained wide acceptance as a method of estimating age from the morphology of the pubic symphyseal region. While some studies have suggested the influence of population variation on age estimations, there has so far been no study that applied the Suchey–Brooks system to Japanese skeletal materials. In this study, I evaluated the morphology of the pubic symphyseal region in a relatively large sample of recent Japanese skeletal material (n = 416) and derived mean ages and standard deviations for each of the six Suchey–Brooks phases. Results suggested that age estimation by this method is comparatively reliable in individuals up to 40 years of age but less reliable at higher ages. In all six pubic bone phases, differences between the mean ages of the Japanese and the Suchey–Brooks series were less than three years, demonstrating the applicability of the system to the recent Japanese.