A statistical test is presented that allows investigating the parts of e.g. the cranium for which discrimination between samples and individual specimens is most pronounced. Ihe testing procedure uses pairwise comarison of variables to asses the relativecontribution of each variable to this discrimination. The procedure is illustrated by comparing the Petralona and Kabwe crania with cranial samples of recent Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Asiatic Homo erectus.