[Terrapreta] Pottery Shards and Terra Preta

[Kevin Chisholm]

Some people hold that pottery shards are an important aspect to the 
working of Terra Preta, (TP) but others feel that the presence of 
pottery shards in Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE) is incidental to the 
performance of the TP.

Is it possible that the Researchers looked for the presence of pottery 
shards as a way of proving human involvement, and did most of their work 
on TP soils that had a human involvement?

Pottery was a big art of Brazilian Indian Culture, but other Ancient 
Cultures did not have, or made very little use, of pottery. Are tehre 
any "black earth" deposits outside "pottery cultures" that are 
acknowledged as being the equivalent to TP?

Is it possible that there are many man made TP soils to which no shards 
were added?

What is the nature of the shards found in TP? Are they like a crushed 
grog, where it is obvious that effort had been expended breaking the 
pottery to relatively small pieces, OR, is shard size and shape such 
that it suggests broken pottery items were simply discarded?

Are the shards of a nature in size and completeness that they could be 
re-assembled to reveal the size and shape of the original pottery items?

Is there any evidence to suggest that pottery shards were indeed added 
on purpose, in contrast to merely being disposed of an non-functional items?

Is there any evidence to show that TP WITH pottery shards  works better 
than TP WITHOUT shards?

Is there any evidence that shards of one range of sizes and composition 
and degree of firing give better results in TP than another?

Can anyone think of other reasons why pottery shards would be a valuable 
addition to TP?

Can anyone think of reasons why pottery shards would not make any 
difference?

Any facts, comments and observations would be both enlightening and 
appreciated.

Best wishes,

Kevin