www.sci-cult.com SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 9, No. 1, (2023), pp. 1-20 Open Access. Online & Print Copyright: © 2023. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. (https://cre- ativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6883819 SISTERS BUT NOT IDENTICAL TWINS: SOME CAUTIONARY NOTES ON ADOPTING FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS IN BIOARCHAEOLOGY Efthymia Nikita* 1 and Maria-Eleni Chovalopoulou 2 1 Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Centre, The Cyprus Institute, 2121 Aglantzia, Nicosia, Cyprus 2 Animal and Human Physiology Department, Faculty of Biology, School of Sciences, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, GR 157 01, Athens, Greece Received: 22/07/2022 Accepted: 09/08/2022 Corresponding author: Efthymia Nikita (e.nikita@cyi.ac.cy) ABSTRACT Age-at-death, sex, and stature estimation from adult human skeletal remains lie at the core of bioarchaeolog- ical and forensic anthropological research. Several methods have been proposed for such estimations, with almost all of them being developed using modern documented skeletal collections. Therefore, unavoidably bioarchaeology largely adopts relevant methodologies from forensic anthropology. Applying these osteolog- ical age-at-death, sex, and stature estimation methods to archaeological skeletal remains relies on the inher- ently flawed assumption that biological processes are homogenous across time and space. This paper offers a brief review of some of the key methods bioarchaeology has adopted from forensic anthropology, stressing the limitations of blindly using methods developed based on contemporary assemblages on archaeological ones, but also on systematic efforts that have been made to address these limitations. KEYWORDS: age-at-death estimation, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, sex estimation, stature estima- tion.