{
  "abstract": "Naturally occurring radon-222 and its short-lived alpha-emitting progeny are important sources of environmental radioactivity in enclosed, earth-contact spaces, yet their potential relevance to archaeological built environments has rarely been quantified. Here we evaluate chronic radon exposure in Chaco Canyon, where Ancestral Pueblo people occupied earth-contact and semi-subterranean rooms associated with Pueblo Bonito and other great houses during AD 850--1150. We developed a Chaco-specific source-to-risk model using an ensemble of uranium-miner radon risk functions to link uranium- and radium-bearing geology, soil-gas radon production, diffusion- and advection-driven indoor entry, ventilation, dust/smoke-enhanced progeny exposure, floor-level occupancy, premodern survival, and radon-associated lung-cancer mortality. The model converts indoor radon scenarios to working-level-month exposure and propagates risk through reconstructed birth cohorts and competing mortality. Under the reference population trajectory, modeled exposure produced notable conditional lifetime lung-cancer risk among long-lived residents and an age-structured mortality burden during AD 850--1150. Because survival into older adulthood was limited, realized population-level burden remained demographically constrained even where conditional individual risk was elevated. We do not propose radon as a primary cause of Chacoan depopulation, Pueblo Bonito decline, or regional abandonment. Rather, the results indicate that elevated radon in selected earth-contact microenvironments could have imposed a chronic, elder-concentrated health burden within an already stressed social and ecological system, making geogenic radioactivity a testable contributor to cumulative vulnerability.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Reynold E. Silber"
    },
    {
      "name": "Elizabeth A Silber"
    },
    {
      "name": "Carman Melendrez"
    },
    {
      "name": "Robert Silber"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9gfpe21nhfwwc.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.jenvrad.2026.108174",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9gfpe21nhfwwc",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15264/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Ancestral Pueblo"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Chaco Canyon"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Chemistry"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Health and Protection"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Monitoring"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Public Health"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Geochemistry"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Other Earth Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Other Environmental Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Other Physics"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Paleontology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Radon-222"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Sustainability"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "indoor radon"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "radiological risk"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "radon"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "source-to-risk modeling"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "uranium-bearing strata"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://eartharxiv.org/repository/object/15264/download/26470/",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9gfpe21nhfwwc.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:39Z",
      "native_id": "15264",
      "source": "eartharxiv",
      "url": "https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15264/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Paleontology",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    },
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "bepress:Environmental Chemistry",
      "subfield": "environmental"
    },
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "bepress:Environmental Health and Protection",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    },
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "bepress:Geochemistry",
      "subfield": "geology-geochemistry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Model-Based Assessment of Geogenic Radon Exposure in Chaco Canyon and Adjacent Ancestral Puebloan Residential Settings",
  "title_text": "Model-Based Assessment of Geogenic Radon Exposure in Chaco Canyon and Adjacent Ancestral Puebloan Residential Settings",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:39Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9gfpe21nhfwwc",
  "venue": "EarthArXiv",
  "versions": []
}