Sex Determination of Heavily Degraded Human Remains: Application of Palaeoproteomic Sexing of Dental Enamel

UCHIDA-FUKUHARA Yoko* and TSUTAYA Takumi

By estimating the sex of buried human remains, contemporary views on life and death, power structures, and lived experiences can be examined further. Traditionally, the sex of ancient human remains has been determined by observing macroscopic morphology, such as the pelvis, or by ancient DNA sequencing. However, these methods are only applicable to well-preserved remains and are difficult to apply to heavily degraded remains. As a potential solution to this problem, ancient protein analysis of dental enamel has rapidly advanced in recent years. Amelogenin protein, encoded by sex chromosomes, is expressed in dental enamel, and sequencing it enables sex estimation. This proteomic method has been shown to be more applicable and accurate than morphological or ancient DNA-based analyses. In this study, we used ancient protein analysis of dental enamel from early farmers in Japan (~2000 years ago) to examine sex-based power differences at that time. Even though the remains were highly degraded and, in some cases, only millimeter-sized enamel fragments were recovered within the burial structure, this method provided highly reliable results for the chromosomal sex of the buried individuals.