Semi-Intensive Pre-European Cultivation and the Origins of Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Amazonia

Abstract

Anthropogenic dark earths are widespread in the uplands (terra firme) of Amazonia, in patches covering a hectare or less up to several hundred hectares. The blacker form (terra preta) seems to have developed from preEuropean village middens consisting of ash and charcoal from kitchen fires, cultural debris, feces, human and animal bones, and house/garden waste (Woods and McCann 1999). The lighter, dark brown form (terra mulata), which is much more extensive, is believed by some soil scientists (Sombroek 1966:175; Glaser et al. 2001a), archaeologists (Herrera et al. 1992; Petersen et al. 2001), botanists (Prance and Schubart 1978), and geographers (Denevan 1998; Woods and McCann 1999) to be the product of intensive cultivation practices (Fig. 10.1). Others, however, such as Smith (1980) and Eden et al. (1984), rejected an agricultural origin because of the depth of dark earth soils. Smith argued for midden origins, and he saw soil color and depth as being functions of length of village-site duration. In 1980 he was apparently unaware of the extent of terra mulata that contains little or no midden material.