[Terrapreta] Fwd: The Reason for Pottery Shards in Terra Preta. Re: Char and compost ( was Char made made under pressurized conditions? )

Wed Apr 2 09:58:16 CDT 2008

Note that broken pot themselves formed the pottery kiln in an early  
stage of making pottery.   Surely, there must be some studies by  
archeologists of Amazonian culture of pottery making?

Where pottery making became an organised craft, the bonfire site was  
often excavated to a shallow pit and covered with a good layer of  
brushwood on top of the charcoal and ashes of the previous firing.  
Then the sun-dried pots would be stacked on top, usually upside down,  
and depending on the size, layer upon layer. Over the top layer of  
pots a covering layer of broken pieces of fired pots from previous  
firings was carefully laid. This protected the pots from cold winds  
during and after the firing which reduced the risk of cracking.  
Finally more brushwood on top and the bonfire was ready to light.

http://www.ceramicstudies.me.uk/index.html

Gerrit

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Gerald Van Koeverden <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>
> Date: April 2, 2008 10:06:57 AM EDT (CA)
> To: david at davidhirst.com
> Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] The Reason for Pottery Shards in Terra  
> Preta. Re:	Char and compost ( was Char made made under pressurized	 
> conditions? )
>
> The making of charcoal and pottery are inextricably related.   
> Charcoal is used to fire ceramics in kilns, but also kilns are used  
> to make charcoal.
>
> for a neat review of the history of the development of ceramics  
> from the earliest times, see
>
> http://www.ceramicstudies.me.uk/index.html
>
> gerrit
>
>
> On 2-Apr-08, at 7:16 AM, David Hirst .com wrote:
>> Is it possible that the pottery pots were used in the  
>> manufacturing process? When full of stuff, it was set light,  
>> sealed up, and then smashed open as part of the spreading process.  
>> Could it be that the pottery baking was a by-product of the char- 
>> making? Could the clay have been a soft, unbaked lining to a  
>> wooden container?
>>
>> Pure speculation, of course.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>> David Hirst
>>
>> direct:     +44 (0) 1723 570113
>>
>> mobile:   +44 (0) 7831 405443
>>
>> email:     david at davidhirst.com
>>
>> From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta- 
>> bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of lou gold
>> Sent: 02 April 2008 11:54
>> To: MMBTUPR at aol.com
>> Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
>> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] The Reason for Pottery Shards in Terra  
>> Preta. Re: Char and compost ( was Char made made under pressurized  
>> conditions? )
>>
>>
>>
>> Another good guess, I believe.
>>
>> If you look at the images in the BBC documentary of the "cut-away"  
>> terra preta dig, it really looks like a honeycomb structure.
>>
>> And the density of shards is amazing. I wondered why? What  
>> function and why so many? If you consider the population densities  
>> reported by Francisco de Orellana (for example, a stretch of river  
>> where people were living house-pressed-to-house for 20 miles) and  
>> the normal volumes of human waste, it is easy to imagine huge  
>> amounts of pottery shards.
>>
>> It seems to all be coming together, thanks to everyones' speculation.
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 7:29 AM, <MMBTUPR at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>>                from          Lewis L Smith
>>
>> The case of the pottery shards and the role of urine in terra  
>> preta is fascinating.  Congratulations to all on a fine piece of  
>> "detective work".
>>
>> However, a question sticks in my mind. Did the presence of lots of  
>> shards in terra preta accidentally contribute to the effectiveness  
>> of the ongoing chemical processes ?
>>
>> In Puerto Rico, researchers at the Bacardí rum distillery learned  
>> that microbes which "snip" big molecules into smaller ones, like  
>> to "sit down" while they do their work. So they greatly improved  
>> the efficiency of the Company's digester for distillation slops by  
>> placing a honeycomb like structure within in it. Without taking up  
>> a lot of volume, this structure greatly increased the available  
>> surface area to which microbes could attach themselves.
>>
>> I also recall from research into ocean-thermal energy conversion  
>> by a former client, that there was a considerable loss of transfer  
>> efficiency in the heat exchangers because the microbes in the sea  
>> water like to attach themselves to the available surfaces rather  
>> than float around.
>>
>> [ The solution turned out to be pretty simple. Every so often  
>> clean the insides of the heat exchangers with a pots-and-pans  
>> cleanser, such as Ajax. ]
>>
>> Query :  Is it possible that the surfaces of the shards  
>> contributed to the terra-preta processes in an analogous fashion ?
>>
>> Cordially.
>>
>>
>> **************
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