Division of Biological Anthropology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, UK.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2012 Feb;147(2):264-79. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.21644. Epub 2011 Dec 20.
Adult stature and body mass represent fundamental biological characteristics of individuals and populations, as they are relevant to a range of problems from assessing nutrition and health to longer term evolutionary processes. Stature and body mass estimation from skeletal dimensions are therefore key to addressing biological and social questions about past populations. Anatomical reconstruction provides the most direct proxy for living stature but is only suitable for well-preserved remains. Regression equations for estimating stature from bone lengths are therefore extremely useful, though it is well recognized that differences in body proportions limit the cross-application of equations between samples. Here, we assess the accuracy of published stature estimation equations from worldwide and New World groups applied to archaeological samples from the central Andean coast and highlands of South America. As no existing equations are clearly appropriate, new sample-specific regression equations are presented. Anatomical stature reconstruction is further complicated by artificial cranial modification (ACM) influencing cranial height in Andean samples, so this problem is investigated in the current sample. Although ACM has minimal impact here, the possibility should be explored in other samples before anatomical stature estimation is attempted. Recommendations are also made for estimating body mass from femoral head diameter. The mean of three previously published equations is shown to offer minimal bias and the most reliable estimate of body mass in the study samples.
成年人的身高和体重是个体和人群的基本生物学特征，因为它们与从评估营养和健康到更长期的进化过程等一系列问题有关。因此，从骨骼尺寸估计身高和体重是解决有关过去人群的生物学和社会问题的关键。解剖重建提供了最直接的活体身高替代指标，但仅适用于保存完好的遗骸。因此，基于骨骼长度估计身高的回归方程非常有用，但人们也认识到，身体比例的差异限制了方程在样本之间的交叉应用。在这里，我们评估了来自世界各地和新世界群体的已发表的身高估计方程在南美洲安第斯海岸和高地的考古样本中的准确性。由于没有明确适用的现有方程，因此提出了新的特定于样本的回归方程。由于人工颅骨修饰（ACM）会影响安第斯样本中的颅高，因此进一步使解剖学身高重建复杂化，因此在此样本中对此问题进行了研究。尽管 ACM 在这里的影响很小，但在尝试解剖学身高估计之前，应该在其他样本中探索这种可能性。还建议从股骨头直径估计体重。研究样本中，三个先前发表的方程的平均值显示出最小的偏差，是估计体重的最可靠估计值。
