[Terrapreta] More on clay/pottery etc

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Dina

Very interesting!! It could also possibly explain the depth of Terra
Preta soils. The Olla Jars may have been surrounded by char, as a way of
enabling uniform water distribution throughout the soil growing volume.

It would be very interesting to see if any Archaeologists attempted to
re-assemble shards, to see the shape of the vessel the shards came from.

Best wishes,

Kevin

Nina Bowman wrote:
> Regarding the pottery shards found in terra preta. I think they may
> have used the pottery as olla jars, which were sunk into the ground
> and water was poured into them to water the plants. Roots found their
> way into the pottery and the jars would break, thus needing to obtain
> another one. This would account for so many shards found at the
> sites. I found the following link on the usage of olla jars which
> have been used for centuries.
> 
> http://pathtofreedom.com/peddlerswagon/garden/water%20savers/olla/olla-pumpkin.shtml
> 
> 
> Nina Bowman
>