Abstract

Sexual estimation is fundamental to reconstruct the biological profile of individuals, but postdepositional factors can alter the resistance of the bones preventing accurate diagnosis especially when the skull and the pelvis are absent. Navicular bones usually keep a good level of preservation in archaeological and forensic contexts, being a good alternative to discriminate sex. Considering what is mentioned above, this investigation analyzed the sexual dimorphism on 231 pairs of navicular bones from documented contemporary collections from Spain. ROC curve analysis and binary logistic regressions were carried out in 8 replicable linear measurements of navicular bone. Each of the 8 variables showed a significant sexual dimorphism in our sample.