“Intra-observer error of the scoring of degenerative features from the auricular surface of the ilium: implications for the estimation of age-at-death”
Vanessa Campanacho
Research Center for Anthropology and Health (CIAS), University of Coimbra, Portugal
The degenerative features of the iliac auricular surface are useful for the estimation of age-at-death. However, difficulties regarding the scoring of such features are often pinpointed. Unfortunately, the observer error is seldom calculated for each feature, preventing the assessment of its influence on the results. Therefore, this research intended to determine the influence of the observer error on morphological characteristics of the iliac auricular surface.
The intra-observer error regarding selected morphological features of both the iliac auricular surface was estimated by using a sample of 20 auricular surfaces of male skeletons from the Identified Collection of the National Museum of Natural History (Portugal). In order to do that, two different sessions of observations were carried out with a two-weeks interval. The intra-observer error was then evaluated according to Cohen's Kappa. The results demonstrate that, although some morphological features have small intra-observation error, the opposite was found for other feautures such as the apical area, the microporosity, the coarse granularity and the lipping.
The observation error is a major factor leading to low reliability of the estimation of age-at-death whatever the method adopted. Therefore, the use of the metamorphosis of the iliac auricular surface for this purpose must be carried out with extreme caution.
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