DOI Artikel:
Smith, Grafton Elliot; Jones, Frederic Wood: Anatomical report
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18102#0058
it was not a woman's. We might quote a large series of instances of a
similarly misleading condition of affairs. Then again, we have found,
especially in Cemetery No. 5 in El Biga, quite a large series of women's
skeletons in which the skull and limb bones were typically masculine.
The large number of skeletons examined by us, in which the question of
sex has been put beyond all doubt by the retention of the genitalia, has
supplied us with a mass of evidence regarding the distinctive characters
of sex in the skeleton, which we believe has enabled us to separate the
bones of men from those of women with accuracy in every case where
we have claimed to have made a determination of sex. While taking
into due consideration the sexual characters of the whole skeleton
mentioned in all text-books of anatomy, we have placed chief reliance
on the following characters, which our experience has shown us to be
most trustworthy. In most cases the form of the pubic ramus and
the shape of the iliac bone are quite sufficient to indicate the sex of a
single innominate bone, and it is rare to find the acetabulum—or better,
the head of the femur—much more than 40 millimetres in diameter in a
woman : but none of these characters is so trustworthy as the form and
breadth of the great sciatic notch, the shape and extent of the auricular
surface of the ilium, and especially the character of the paraglenoidal
sulci. Dr. Douglas Derry has demonstrated (in the dissecting-room at
Cairo) that broad and deep paraglenoidal (preauricular and post-
auricular) grooves are distinctive of the female os innominatum : we
have repeatedly confirmed this observation in the field, and have made
use of it in determining the sex even from small fragments of the ilium.
We have dealt at this length with the question of " sexing " because
a study of the literature of anthropology, more especially that relating
to Egypt, reveals many discrepancies in the statements of different
writers, which can be explained partly by errors in the determination
of sex and the estimation of the age of the material as well as by more
obvious mistakes.
In Cemetery No. 45, the average height of the men was 1-593
metres, and of the women 1-470 metres.
Of the 143 individuals in this cemetery 73 were men, 48 women and
17 children : 5 bodies were in a fragmentary state and could not be
" sexed".
This cemetery was remarkable by reason of the quite unusual number
of fractures of the lower limb below the knee found in it: in other
similarly misleading condition of affairs. Then again, we have found,
especially in Cemetery No. 5 in El Biga, quite a large series of women's
skeletons in which the skull and limb bones were typically masculine.
The large number of skeletons examined by us, in which the question of
sex has been put beyond all doubt by the retention of the genitalia, has
supplied us with a mass of evidence regarding the distinctive characters
of sex in the skeleton, which we believe has enabled us to separate the
bones of men from those of women with accuracy in every case where
we have claimed to have made a determination of sex. While taking
into due consideration the sexual characters of the whole skeleton
mentioned in all text-books of anatomy, we have placed chief reliance
on the following characters, which our experience has shown us to be
most trustworthy. In most cases the form of the pubic ramus and
the shape of the iliac bone are quite sufficient to indicate the sex of a
single innominate bone, and it is rare to find the acetabulum—or better,
the head of the femur—much more than 40 millimetres in diameter in a
woman : but none of these characters is so trustworthy as the form and
breadth of the great sciatic notch, the shape and extent of the auricular
surface of the ilium, and especially the character of the paraglenoidal
sulci. Dr. Douglas Derry has demonstrated (in the dissecting-room at
Cairo) that broad and deep paraglenoidal (preauricular and post-
auricular) grooves are distinctive of the female os innominatum : we
have repeatedly confirmed this observation in the field, and have made
use of it in determining the sex even from small fragments of the ilium.
We have dealt at this length with the question of " sexing " because
a study of the literature of anthropology, more especially that relating
to Egypt, reveals many discrepancies in the statements of different
writers, which can be explained partly by errors in the determination
of sex and the estimation of the age of the material as well as by more
obvious mistakes.
In Cemetery No. 45, the average height of the men was 1-593
metres, and of the women 1-470 metres.
Of the 143 individuals in this cemetery 73 were men, 48 women and
17 children : 5 bodies were in a fragmentary state and could not be
" sexed".
This cemetery was remarkable by reason of the quite unusual number
of fractures of the lower limb below the knee found in it: in other