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9 AUGUST 2002 VOL 297 SCIENCE www.
sciencemag.
org920
IRANDUBA, AMAZÔNAS STATE, BRAZIL—
Above a pit dug by a...
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9 AUGUST 2002 VOL 297 SCIENCE www.
sciencemag.
org920
IRANDUBA, AMAZÔNAS STATE, BRAZIL—
Above a pit dug by a team of archaeologists
here is a papaya orchard filled with unusually vigorous trees bearing great clusters of
plump green fruit.
Below the surface lies a
different sort of bounty: hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of burial urns and millions of
pieces of broken ceramics, all from an almost unknown people who flourished here
before the conquistadors.
But surprisingly,
what might be most important about this
central Amazonian site is not the vibrant orchard or the extraordinary outpouring of ceramics but the dirt under the trees and
around the ceramics.
A rich, black soil
known locally as terra preta do Indio (Indian
dark earth), it sustained large settlements on
these lands for 2 millennia, according to the
Brazilian-American archaeolog
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