Zeitschrift für forensische Forschung

Questionable Affiliation of Five Curated Crania: Using MicroScribe 3D Digitizer and FORDISC 3.1 Computer Program to Estimate Ancestry and Sex

Abstract

Conrad B. Quintyn

Objective: This study attempts to estimate the ancestry and sex of five unknown human crania curated by the Anthropology Department at Bloomsburg University. The fallout caused by curation and public display of human skulls in the Morton Collection, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology prompted the Bloomsburg University administration to direct the Anthropology Department to assess the affiliation of these crania that had no clear origins.

Method: A MicroScribe G-2X digitizer was used to collect coordinate data from osteometric landmarks, which were simultaneously recorded by an analytical software called ThreeSkull (3Skull) and subsequently imported into the FORDISC 3.1 discriminant functions computer program for processing.

Result: Cranium A12022 is that of a Japanese female with a posterior probability of 0.572; cranium A22022 is that of a Hispanic/Guatemalan male with posterior probabilities of 0.523 and 0.679; cranium A42022 is that of a Guatemalan/Hispanic male with posterior probabilities of 0.48 and 0.679; cranium A52022 is that of an American Indian male with a posterior probability of 0.845; and cranium A62022 is that of a Chinese (Atayal) male with a posterior probability of 0.911.

Conclusion: For the cranium classified as American Indian, further research will continue to uncover details of the original acquisition with the eventual goal of repatriating it to the lineal American Indian descendants for reburial.