[Terrapreta] Re-mineralization and Ceramics

[lou gold]

Hi Sean and Wayne,

Your responses and so much more that I've gleaned from this marvelous forum
make me want to continue my unscientific speculations.

Perhaps the char and the pottery and the nutrients and the minerals were
part of a "compost soup" in the waste dumps at first and this "soup" created
an especially rich soil which was later spread around to other areas,
probably with more ground char. These "amendments" contained all the
necessary ingredients -- structural, microbial, mineral, nutritional, etc
and had a "life" which continued to grow (like a culture) wherever it was
placed.

Thus, the lesson from the first Terra Preta peoples maybe cultural even more
than technological -- we can solve many problems by understanding waste as
resource and using it to restore the health of the earth. All consumption
generates waste. Putting it in the wrong place is polluting and destructive;
putting it in the right place is healing and productive. As production and
waste are linked harmoniously, we shift from a system of depletion and
scarcity to one of restoration and abundance.

Perhaps, the new paradigm can be expressed simply as "waste not, want not."
Implementing it at every level of societal, economical, and technological
organization becomes the work of our age. It could be a very good time.

Just speculating....

lou




On 8/30/07, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:
>
>  Hi Lou,
>
> Clay in pottery is primarily Aluminum Silicate-AlSO3.  I do not know what
> other minerals is contains, or in what amounts.  Clay was porbably taken
> from the very local soils to make the pottery.  It is very similar to the
> mostly Oxisol soil found in the tropics, which is not a particularly fertile
> and mineral rich medium for growing plants.  In the tropics plants get
> almost all of there minerals from the deadfall of the biomass above the
> ground around them.  At the same time, the soil under them is made almost
> devoid of mineral content by inexorable leaching away from the flow of
> water.  It is kind of a paradox how a verdant jungle can exist on tropical
> soils.
>
> Based on this, I think pottery shards are not related too much to
> "re-mineralization".  It might be worth testing, though, whether the pottery
> shards contain added minerals (in the clay or glazing?), making them
> different than the clay from the natural surroundings.
> There probably are easy ways to verify whether there was any value to the
> pottery shards found in TP, to be used as possible
> "re-mineralization" therapy for the soil, and which had been applied
> purposefully for that function by the Amazon people.
>
> Regards,
>
> SKB
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com>
> *To:* Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 30, 2007 1:47 AM
> *Subject:* [Terrapreta] Re-mineralization and Ceramics
>
> I know so little about soil chemistry, etc that this maybe be an odd
> question.
>
> Can the need for soil re-mineralization offer another possible explanation
>
> for the function of the pottery found in the TP sites of the Amazon?
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