Tea at Trianon: Amazonian Agriculturalists Created ‘Terra Preta’ Thousands of Years Ago

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Amazonian Agriculturalists Created ‘Terra Preta’ Thousands of Years Ago

From Ancient Origins:

A fascinating body of research has revealed how intimately our ancestors were connected to the earth – specifically, ancient Amazonians, who intentionally created a fertile dark earth or ‘terra preta’. The study has found that despite the highly acidic and low nutritional content of the Amazonian soil for agricultural purposes, ancient humans intentionally modified the environment around former human settlements to allow their expansion. This study published in Sciences Advances, was led by researchers at MIT, the University of Florida, and institutions in Brazil. In the past, while conducting research in a region of the Amazon inhabited by the Kuikuro people, a team of researchers led by anthropologist Michael Heckenberger from the University of Florida, alongside Morgan Schmidt, who was a graduate student at the time, discovered that these communities utilize sophisticated agricultural methods. One such technique involves the establishment of centralized middens—accumulations of waste that break down over time, enriching the soil, which in turn supports crop cultivation. The researchers essentially helped address a longstanding debate about intentionality – was this dark earth, known as ‘terra preta’, an inadvertent byproduct of certain practices, or very intentional? This study helped confirm that these practices were very much intentional. (Read more.)