Age at time of death?

luckywolf13

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May 9, 2015
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Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Note: This artifact (skull) was taken from it's original site almost a hundred years ago and offered to a museum, who declined it. I did not remove it, but I am very interested in it and am making sure it is better taken care of.
My question for you all, which I don't know if anyone will know the answer to, is how old do you think she was at time of death? The rest of her body was lost a long time ago, so I only have the skull plates to go on. Luckily, gender was established early on. Anyway, any ideas?
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Thats all neat and fancy and stuff, but everything I said is factual. Peeing up hill is not illegal, but most smart people just dont do it.

Entire point is it is impossible to tell from picture if skull is legal or illegal...... Just as impossible to tell if a pot picture was downloaded from a website or picture of someone's back yard if they delete embedded picture info...
 

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The original poster is new. First and only post. He posted a generic picture here. Everyone gave him the response he wanted.
I doubt it is even his picture. There are a million more qualified scientific forums he could have posted this pic to and asked the question yet his first post is to here ? lol
 

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To answer your question without digressing. Just looking at the sutures, I'll venture a WAG of between 25 and 40. Now I can digress. Go google up determining age by sutures in the skull. It's a science and it is an indicator of age, but some disagreement about how accurate. From your pic I can't make a determination of race or sex really. And I have a little experience in that as I was trained in facial reconstruction, where you place clay on a skull to reconstruct the face of the deceased. (not an expert by any means in that) In the course they did cover how to determine sex, race, age, whether the skull was historic or prehistoric. I didn't retain all that information though.
 

OP hasn't logged in since posting original opening post..
 

Maybe the twisted turns the responses took had somethin to do with that? Anyway, a more final response: Turn it over to your county coroner and all your questions will be answered. (I could be joking there) One thing I had a question about is why is it such a great thing the skull was allegedly ID'd as female early on?
 

I don't even know why I'm posting on this but I'm pretty sure being in possession of undocumented human remains puts you in a position of legal responsibility.
 

again read his post.
He apparently is not in Possession

Quote :
I did not remove it, but I am very interested in it

and apparently the only pictures he has are the skull plates
 

You didn't quote the part where he said he was making sure it was better taken care of.
 

You didn't quote the part where he said he was making sure it was better taken care of.

there are many ways to do that, From reporting it to an archi.
Narking on the owner, Trying to have it Buried with as much info as possible.
watching it's location. Taking it home. it all epends on the persons opinion on what is right

Fact is he did say
I am very interested in it and am making sure it is better taken care of.

it could be setting in a College , School, Defunct Dr's office after an Auction .


seems to me a few are getting a bit holier then Thou attitudes over a Couple Pics :unhappysmiley:
 

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I just want to be assured......

All members.....

even Hit & Run Members with one post....

Will receive Respect at TreasureNet !!!!

there is no Guilty till proven innocent here 8-)
 

I just want to be assured......

All members.....

even Hit & Run Members with one post....

Will receive Respect at TreasureNet !!!!

there is no Guilty till proven innocent here 8-)
X 2!
 

I fully understand the rules of respecting other posters .That had no business being on here.It is not an artifact that has any use as an informational tool as to draw any positive conversation.I would think if that was the case there would be a section called bones skulls and other body parts....mjm
 

I fully understand the rules of respecting other posters .That had no business being on here.It is not an artifact that has any use as an informational tool as to draw any positive conversation.I would think if that was the case there would be a section called bones skulls and other body parts....mjm

My guess he was Impressed by the Members wisdom & friendliness here .
(I wonder if I should add Boy was he wrong !!! :( )
Hopefully some of the attitudes here don't come back to bite them.
as members who chase New members away with their attitudes ,
have been banned in the Past.

newbies have the Best excuse for their actions.
"They are New" .

others ? ..... well :BangHead:
 

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You don't have to worry about me being rude to anyone or driving anyone away.Its not my nature...But on saying that I believe posting pics of peoples skull parts is very disrespectful this isn't a medical forum.In my opinion body parts need to be in the ground no matter how old they are or where they are from.I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want my skull or that of a loved one displayed in that matter....mjm
 

With regard to federal laws:

Rethinking Laws Permitting the Sales of Human Remains*|*Tanya D. Marsh

Article mentions three states. Those are NY, Georgia, and Tn. Those states prohibit trade/sale of human remains across state lines.

Posted simply to help clarify laws covering ownership in US.

"The only federal law which restricts the sale of human remains is the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which generally attempts to protect the burial sites of Native Americans by prohibiting the possession and trade of Native American funerary objects and human remains. No federal law prohibits the disturbance of the burial sites of non-Native Americans, or the possession and trade of funerary objects and human remains. Instead, the laws regarding the disposition, possession, and trade of human remains and the disturbance of graves is handled by the states. Only three states currently restrict the trade in human remains"
 

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You don't have to worry about me being rude to anyone or driving anyone away.Its not my nature...But on saying that I believe posting pics of peoples skull parts is very disrespectful this isn't a medical forum.In my opinion body parts need to be in the ground no matter how old they are or where they are from.I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want my skull or that of a loved one displayed in that matter....mjm

Museums around the world contain human remains on display.... Picture is not of remains in a grave.....
 

First off,
The skulls discolouration suggests that it was buried during the purification process of the decomposition of the tissue. This however is a staining that is easily reproduced by people in order to sell bones stating they were recovered. (I am not stating that is the fact here. Rather that the staining remains consistent within the sutures suggests that is is a natural staining.)

The sutures you can see in the photo, the more prominent one, which extends up and down in the photos is the Coronal Suture, the more sealed suture, running left to right, curving like a snake, it the Sagittal Suture.

The fact that the Sagittal suture (the left to right one) is fused together indicates that the person was at or slightly older than 35 (The age when the bones fuse together) However there is an interesting problem with this one, the Coronal Suture is still quite large, Normally it fuses around the age of 24. THis one seems to have a large gap still, but the lower portions are fused.

The fact that the Sagittal suture is fused, but the coronal is not, indicates that this person suffered from an ailment called Sagittal Synostosis, where the Sagittal suture prematurely fuses before the coronal suture.

With this in mind, The only suture you can accurately age the skull with is the Coronal suture, and I would place the age of death between 22 and 24 years of age.

Hope this helps.
 

For many years museums weren't specialized like they are today. This skull may have fallen beyond their realm of expertise.
 

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