Investigation Into Radiation Exposure of Pre- Columbian Pueblo People in Northern New Mexico: Results of the Initial Study (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Paleopathology, 2017
Ancestral Puebloan people in the North American Southwest suffered high rates of disease, poor health, and early age-at-death. Four individuals with skeletal expressions of cancer were found in a pre-Columbian population in the Taos Valley-Reports of malignant neoplasms in the archaeological record are uncommon and their presence in four of 82 individuals is a high occurrence. This study continues Whitley and Boyer's (2012) research testing whether concentrations of ionizing radiation were sufficiently high to induce cancer and related health issues. Access to a preserved and partly reconstructed subterranean pit structure inhabited between AD 1120 and 1170, allows us to test radon concentrations in a residential dwelling. This study found radon occurring in high levels, 19.4–20.3 pCi/L (717.8–751.1 Bq/m 3) within the structure. Epidemiological reports are inconsistent when linking specific cancers and radon exposure. However, this study can control for many of the confounding factors plaguing other studies, provide unique data that have the potential to initiate dialogue on the etiology of neoplastic disease in the American Southwest, and add new dimensions to the study of the living conditions and health of the Ancestral Puebloans and their descendants.
Contributions in New World Archaeology, 2020
is a semi-annual journal dealing with various aspects of North and South American archaeology, anthropology and ethnohistory. Its main aim is to publish results of archaeological excavations and surveys conducted in various parts of the New World as well as to present papers devoted to the studies of collections of archaeological artefacts discovered in either American continent. Moreover, the journal addresses such subjects as theory, methodology and practice in New World archaeology.
Palaeopathology of the Kechipawan Site: Health and Disease in a South-Western Pueblo
The palaeopathology of the Pueblo of Kechipawan, New Mexico, is examined in the context of South-western demographic patterns. A case of complicated treponemal infection associated with prehistoric pottery remains is described and diagnosed. The establishment in the area of endemic and possibly venereal syphilis, at a time of high population density, is suggested on the basis of the contemporaneity of reported cases and Pueblo settlement patterns.
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times: Health and Nutrition in Pre-Columbian America
2004
Lack of evidence has been the major obstacle to understanding trends and differences in human welfare over the millennia. This paper explains and applies methods that are obscure to most academics and essentially unknown to the general public. A millennial perspective is best obtained from skeletal remains, which depict not only childhood health conditions but also processes of degeneration that accompany aging and strenuous physical effort. Compiled into an index of health, data from 23 localities as part of a large collaborative project on the Western Hemisphere reveal diverse health conditions for the pre-Columbian population. For reasons not yet understood populations moved over time into less healthy ecological environments. The analysis has implications for understanding environmental determinants of health, the pattern of European conquest, pre-contact population size, investigating human adaptation to climate change, and discovering prime movers of very long-term economic gr...