The estimation of age at death is an important part of forensic medicine. The human rib has proven to be a reliable site for age determination. The rib phase method developed by /scan et al has gained widespread acceptance by skeletal biologists and forensic antropologists. In this study the usefulness of this phase method was explored for Turkish skeletal population, and the differences between 3rd, 4th, and 5th right and left ribs were assessed. Ribs 3, 4, and 5 were collected from 34 females and 76 males of known age and sex during postmortem examination. Each rib was assigned to phase using the /scan method. The results indicated that right 3rd and 4th ribs fall into the phases correlated by their age but right 5th and left 3rd, 4th, and 5th ribs showed significant differences in statistical analysis. In conclusion the metamorphosis of the ribs show that the phase standards developed for the right 4th rib may not be used for other ribs for the Turkish skeletons.