[Terrapreta] More on clay/pottery etc

[rukurt at westnet.com.au]

Kevin Chisholm wrote:
>
> It strikes me that there are a lot of "loose ends" on Terra Preta:

> If a Brazilian Aboriginal went on a long walk-about to another area 
> and saw others growing great crops in black soil associated with bogs, 
> he would probably want do the same in his area. He wouldn't have to be 
> a genius to figure out that charcoal makes things black, and it would 
> be a very simple advancement for him to mix some charcoal with local 
> soil, to see if his crops improved.
Hmmm,-----
The Darling Downs area of Queensland, some distance west of Brisbane has 
some very fertile soil. It's black. As far as I know, carbon has nothing 
to do with it's colour.

We should be careful about thinking up possible reasons and using them 
as facts, without research to confirm these theories.

Kurt