Morphological variation of the proximal femur in selected skeletal remains

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the structural variation of the proximal femur in human skeletal samples. The goal was to investigate and further describe the morphology of the proximal femur through quantitative observation. Subsets of measurements were used to calculate platymeric indices, which demonstrate the presence or absence of platymeria in a population. Metric analyses of the femur were also used to study size and shape differences in populations for indications of sexual dimorphism or asymmetry. Finally, selected platymeric index measurements were observed for intraobserver error, to test the validity of the measures and how well the researcher performed them. Data examining the morphology of the proximal femur were collected from a prehistoric Albanian site, a late 18th century Albanian site, and from a documented modern, industrial skeletal collection. In this study, platymeria was identified in the proximal femur in the two pre-industrial Albanian samples for both sexes and side. The results varied when compared to the industrial collection, which was eurymeric in both sexes and side. The proximal femoral differences in side and sex of the preindustrial and industrial remains shed light on biomechanical investigations. Overall, results conclude that the use of platymeric indices allowed the researcher to successfully distinguish variations in the proximal femur among three populations.