Anthrop. Anz. 69/3, pp. 317–333 Article J. Biol. Clinic. Anthrop. published online April 2012 www.schweizerbart.de 0003-5548/12/0168 $ 4.25  2012 E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany DOI: 10.1127/0003-5548/2012/0168 A method for estimating age of Danish medieval sub-adults based on long bone length Charlotte Primeau 1 , Laila Friis 2 , Birgitte Sejrsen 2 and Niels Lynnerup 1 1 Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark charlotte.primeau@sund.ku.dk 2 Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark With 10 figures and 3 tables Summary: The preferred method for aging archaeological sub-adult skeletons is by dental examination. In cases where no dental records are available, age estimation may be per- formed according to epiphyseal union, skeletal elements or diaphyseal lengths. Currently no data have been produced specifically for aging archaeological Danish sub-adults from the medieval period based on diaphyseal lengths. The problem with using data on Danish sam- ples, which have been derived from a different population, is the possibility of skewing age estimates. In this study 58 Danish archaeological sub-adults were examined, aged from approximately six years to twenty-one years. The samples were aged according to two dental methods: Haavikko and Ubelaker. Regression formulae were constructed for aging according to their diaphyseal lengths both for individual long bones and combinations of upper and lower long bones. This study indicated that with the regression formulae developed, estima- tion of age can be done with reasonable results on Danish sub-adults. The Danish data were then compared to data from a different archaeological sample and a modern sample. It showed that the modern data indicated a consistently lower age compared to this sample which increased until reaching a maximum of nearly five years and six months. When com- paring the archaeological data to this study, the growth profile crossed over at 12.5 years with a maximum age difference before the cross point of two years and three months lower for the archaeological data. After the cross point there was a maximum difference of three years and four months higher for the archaeological data. This study has shown the importance of using data for age estimation for archaeological material which has been developed specifically for that population. In addition it has presented a possible solution for Danish sub-adult material when dental material is not available. Key words: skeletal age, diaphyseal length, archaeological, regression formula. Introduction It is highly desirable to age sub-adult skeletons as close as possible to their chrono- logical age for later analyses of the collection for purposes of growth analyses, demo- graphic analyses, the assessment of disease etc. However, this poses a problem for many archaeological samples depending on origin and conditions. Sub-adults can be aged fairly accurately if teeth are preserved (El-Nofely & ˙ I¸ scan 1989, Saunders et al. 1993). Indeed, aging sub-adult skeletons according to dentition is deemed more accu-