New research shows that ancient peoples have been using dark earth, or Amazonian dark earth, to build settlements throughout the Amazon rainforest for thousands of years.
Dark earth is rich in vital nutrients like carbon, phosphorus, and potassium, and would have allowed people to grow crops in areas that otherwise would have been infertile and unproductive.
The new study authors go to the Kuikuro Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon and compare soil samples from modern and ancient villages with those from nearby archaeological sites.
They find that the same practices were probably used in the distant past.
They also find that native communities routinely deposited large quantities of nutrient-rich organic waste into trash middens, which they then use to plant nutrient-starved crops.
Furthermore, dark earth contains significant amounts of carbon as a by-product of other agricultural practices.
These findings contradict previous theories that dark earth was accidentally created by natural phenomena or that it was intentionally cultivated.
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