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

[lou gold]

greg,

no problem.

i remain intrigued the the images of the clear layers, alternating pottery
and soil. I believe this way is the Bolivia segment of the documentary. I
speculate that it had to do with the architecture of mound-building. I have
no seen similar pics from the central Amazon  -- lots of pottery but no
layering.

yes, the studies say clay pots for cooking/food storage. But I have seen any
speculation about human wastes. Perhaps old pots? Something else? What?

personally, my questions keep returning to the overall ecological balance
more than to the challenge of knowing how to make terra preta. i'm sure that
they did not approach things as we "moderns" might analyze and
problem-solve. theirs' was a different mind-set -- quite sophisticated
ecologically -- that was able to create harmony between large population
density and the forest. i want to know about this. i speculate that their
ways might include even more "miracles" beyond terra preta.

for example, can you imagine long-term settlements of house-to-house for 20
or 30 miles along a tropical river and NO diseases? that's mind-boggling!
what else did these people know?

i say VIVA! to asking many more questions.

lou



On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 12:54 PM, Greg and April <gregandapril at earthlink.net>
wrote:

>  *Mea Culpa*.
>
>
> I re-watched the show last night, and the terrain does vary.
>
> OTOH we still don't know what the terrain is at the places where the
> pottery makes up a large percentage of the terra preta.
>
> According to this article:
> http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/actaminerology
> analyzed pottery show indications that they were used as cooking pots, so
> the slop pot theory does not exactly hold up.
>
> I did find interesting that chem. analyst showed traces of feldspars (
> which are normally based on the alkaline minerals Ca, Na, and K ), 3
> different types of iron minerals, and traces of Ma, all in the ceramic it's
> self - and all of them are plant nutrients to one extent or another ( either
> a macro nutrient as in the case of Phosphate and Potassium, a micro nutrient
> as in the case of Calcium and Iron, or as trace element as in the case of
> Manganese and Sodium )
>
> Now there are certain gravels made for aquarium use, that are based on
> fired clay that contains iron ( among other minerals for plant use ), and
> it's made and targeted for use with planted aquariums.
> http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Flourite.html
> Doesn't the mineral list bear a striking resemblance to the list of
> elements found in the pottery?
>
>
> I still believe that the shards are refuse in nature as the expense of
> making decorated pottery just to break it, would be horrendous
>
> Greg H.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com>
> *To:* Greg and April <gregandapril at earthlink.net>
> *Cc:* Terra Preta <terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, April 02, 2008 19:27
> *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] The Reason for Pottery Shards in Terra Preta.
> Re: Char and compost ( was Char made made under pressurized conditions? )
>
> actually the terrain varies a great deal. lots of the sites are along high
> bluffs. makes sense for people to choose non-flooding sites if they are
> available and there is plenty of high ground along the rivers.  i think the
> main region where this no-flood option is not available is in the Bolivian
> plain.
>
>


-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com
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