Hopis remember: Grand Canyon underworld

(Last Cartographer) What the Hopi said was living beneath the Grand Canyon, USA

Copilot on Adm. Byrd's Operation High Jump

(Buried Century) Adm. Byrd's co-pilot wrote a manuscript in 1962, printed once then burned

(PeriscopeFilm) The Secret Land: Operation Highjump US Navy Antarctica expedition 1946

The Secret Land Antarctica (reel)

(PeriscopeFilm) The Secret Land: Antarctica U.S. Navy Operation High Jump Reel 2 (2497)

Operation Highjump: The Great Antarctic Expedition:

Operation Highjump: USS Currituck: VH-4

...PBM pilot Lieutenant Commander David E. Bunger lifted from the bay and headed south for the continent some hundred miles distant. At this time the USS Currituck was off the Shackleton Ice Shelf on the Queen Mary Coast of Wilkes Land. Reaching the coastline, Bunger flew west with cameras humming. Suddenly the men in the cockpit saw a dark spot come up over the barren white horizon and as they drew closer, they couldn't believe their eyes.

Byrd later described it as a "land of blue and green lakes and brown hills in an otherwise limitless expanse of ice." 

Bunger and his men carefully inspected the region and then raced back to the ship to tell the others of their discovery. Several days later Bunger and his flight crew returned for another look, finding one of the lakes big enough to land on. Bunger carefully landed the "flying boat" and slowly came to a stop. The water was actually quite warm for Antarctica, about 30°, as the men dipped their hands in to the elbow. The lake was filled with red, blue, and green algae, which gave the lakes their distinctive color. The fly boys "seemed to have dropped out of the twentieth century into a landscape of thousands of years ago when land was just starting to emerge from one of the great ice ages," Byrd later wrote. Byrd called the discovery "by far the most important, so far as the public interest was concerned of the expedition." More

• VIDEO: Admiral Byrd's expedition to South Pole from 49:00-51:30 shows 300 square mile swath of land with lakes! : r/antarctica
• VIDEO: THE SECRET LAND ANTARCTICA (U.S. Navy Operation High Jump reel)
• Hollow Earth: Admiral Byrd : r/AskPhysics
• Did Father Iannuzzi just indicate his belief in Hollow Earth theory? Research article — Monokosmos

Before dying, member of Byrd's expedition told what hy saw in Antarctica

Admiral Byrd

Byrd, secret mission Highjump

(Wiki) U.S. Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (Oct. 25, 1888–March 11, 1957) was an American naval officer [1], pioneering aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics.

Aircraft flights in which he served as a navigator and expedition leader crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a segment of the Arctic Ocean, and a segment of the Antarctic Plateau. He is also known for discovering Mount Sidley, the largest dormant volcano in Antarctica.

Admiral Byrd claimed to be the first to reach both the North and South Poles by air....He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the U.S. Armed Forces' highest military decoration, and the Navy Cross, the second highest honor for valor given by the U.S. Navy. More

Admiral Byrd mission: last survivor speaks

(UNITY) Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. wrote a diary that was replaced by the CIA (or its predecessor organization OSS) then hidden away until, possibly, his son released the real, unredacted original version after his father's passing. It recounts what Byrd found -- a very advanced civilization living in Agartha (our Hollow Earth) as spoken of in Hindu and Buddhist texts. The momentous mission was Operation Highjump (about The Secret Land)

Antarctica revealed (Linda Moulton Howe)

SEE: Linda Moulton Howe reveals what witnesses saw on Antarctica: "I must tell the truth"!

Our world is not a globe but rings and is hollow.

(Optic Expedition) Feb. 21, 2026: In 1982, a U.S. Navy flight engineer made an emergency landing on a ridge in Antarctica and saw something in the ice that was not supposed to be there.

It was geometric, angular, massive, made of a material that was neither ice nor rock. He was ordered never to speak of it. He signed papers that silenced him. He kept the secret for almost 20 years. Then, dying, he picked up the phone and called one person — Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe (earthfiles.com).

(YouTube Movies & TV) Nexus to Disclosure: The truth is [still] classified

(YouTube Movies & TV) A hidden network of female journalists and activists are dedicated to UFO disclosure, so they uncover shocking truths about the U.S. government's firsthand knowledge of extraterrestrial (space alien, UFO, UAF) phenomena.

India's ancients knew of Agartha below us.

She recorded every word he said. Then she waited because over the next 25 years, more witnesses called: Navy personnel, scientists, U.S. contractors, NORAD officers, all of them describing pieces of the same thing buried beneath Antarctic ice.

All of them had been silenced, all of them. One by one, deciding before they died that she was the only person they trusted to tell the world. Now, at age 81, Linda Moulton Howe has finally compiled every testimony, every coordinate, every classified detail — and she is talking.

She has said, "Before I die, I must tell the truth — because the people who told me these things are dying. And if I do not share what they revealed, this knowledge dies with us." This is what they found.

• Who is Linda Moulton Howe?

• 

  Flat earth flag for the Antarctic Treaty System

  Hitler and the Nazis knew what was in Antarctica (protected by an unprecedented universal treaty agreement when the world can universally agree about nothing else), so they claimed it and named it Neuschwabenland ("New Swabia") with access to extraterrestrial intelligences with high technology that gave them UFOs (vimanas) and Die Glocke ("The Bell," a means of accessing time travel).
• Operation Highjump led by Admiral Dick E. Byrd
• Earthfiles (YouTube)
• Website: earthfiles.com
• McMurdo Station, Antarctica
• Hide it in plain sight: Hollow Earth Expedition
• The Inner Earth Expedition, Part One (Dr. Brooks A. Agnew, PhD)
• The Ark of Millions of Years: New Discoveries and Light on the Creation (Dr. Brooks Alexander Agnew)

China makes it UNDER Antarctica

Gravitational anomaly under Antarctic ice sheet

(New Nature) What's hidden under Antarctica? China just found out

Amazon Shamans on ET Greys (Ant People)

 

Drone ant people

Grey aliens -- also referred to as Roswell Greys, Zeta Reticulans, or simply as Greys [a] or Grays -- are a species of extraterrestrial beings on (and in) earth. [They are the ant people.]

They are frequently featured in claims of close encounters and forced alien abductions.

 
Greys are typically described as having small humanoid bodies, smooth, grey skin, disproportionately large limbs, hairless heads, and large, black, almond-shaped eyes like goggles or sunglasses.

The Cosmic Grandmas and The Ant People

(Galaxy Vault) Who shaped Amazon Jungle like a garden on a master grid?

The famous 1961 Barney and Betty Hill abduction in the American desert was key to the popularization of Grey aliens [1, 2] as was Whitley Strieber's bestselling classic Communion: A True Story.

• 

  Communion (W. Strieber)

  The true story in Whitley Strieber's Communion is an iconic classic. Strieber describes his firsthand 1985 close encounter experiences. This book fundamentally changed the way Americans understand close encounters and alien abductions. The message of Communion, that something is really happening to people but that attempts to study, understand it, or even talk about it remain stifled by the powers that be. The book was first published in 1987. Strieber's riveting account of what he himself experienced, along with his relentless and expert pursuit of the reality behind the experience, is to this day the greatest such account ever published. It is a classic and powerful introduction that explores abductions as they stand today—and it's even more provocative as officials begin to admit that UFOs and ET visitors are real. More

Come spend the catastrophe with us in our caves

Precursor figures have been described in science fiction and similar descriptions appeared in later accounts of the 1947 Roswell UFO incident and early accounts of the 1948 Aztec UFO incident (the "other Roswell").

• Legend of the Ant People: Saviors or Tormentors?

The Ant People helped Hopi survive, cavern beings who twice helped during times of crisis

• Greys would seem to be the underground "Ant People" (Makunwabu or ancient Greek Myrmidons, possibly Buddhist cosmology's Kumbhandas) of the legendary Grand Canyon Native American civilization that was saved from a natural cataclysm on the surface by being taken down into the dwelling place of these humanoid beings and being sheltered there for a long time until it was safe to come up again and repopulate the surface world.
• A Buddhist kumbhanda is a kind of "dwarf" or "gnome," a short being shaped like a "gourd" but also described as having testicles as large as a pot (kumbha), two etymologies that give them their name. More

Roger (American Dad!) 

The world's most famous Grey is named "Roger Smith" whose handler (Stan Smith), working for the CIA, liberated him from Area 51.

The Grey alien is cited an archetypal image of an intelligent non-human creature or ET (extraterrestrial) life in general.

It has become an iconic trope in popular -- thanks to Cartman and the very first episode of South Park -- culture in the age of space exploration.

(Kim Iversen) Is God a space alien? Catholic abduction may change minds

Aztlán? Atlantis? Where'd Sea Peoples come from?

Description and Appearance

We are not alone. Here is a photo of a real ET.

Grey aliens are typically depicted as grey-skinned, diminutive (small being 3 or 4 feet tall) humanoid beings that possess reduced forms of, or completely lack, external human body parts such as noses, ears, and external sex organs [3]. [They may be partly artificial synthetic-organic automatons with AI abilities sometimes seen operating under the direction or power of Tall Whites (Nordic aliens).] Their bodies are usually depicted as... More

• Joe Rogan Podcast; Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Lost civilization beneath Antarctica?

• (History Channel) Antarctica, home to advanced civilization: Agartha

The Cosmic Buddha Cave? (Ancient Aliens)

Underground alien connections: Esoteric encounters | Ancient Aliens

There's nothing under us but dark dirt

(HISTORY) May 15, 2025:  Enlightenment by spelunking? Welcome to the Hollow Earth civilization of Agartha (the original Mexican Atzlan or European Atlantis?) Is that you, Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva (Kokūzō Bosatsu)? Shingon (Esoeric) Buddhism is closely related to Vedic Hinduism.

Shingon (真言宗, Shingon-shū, "True Word/Mantra School") is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called Tōmitsu (東密 literally, "Esoteric [Buddhism] of Tō-ji") [1].

The word shingon is the Japanese reading of the Chinese word 真言 (zhēnyán) [2], which is the translation of the Sanskrit word mantra, which means something like "thought instrument" (Japanese "true words" or om'yomi).

The Zhēnyán lineage was founded in China (circa 7th–8th centuries) by Indian vajrācāryas ("esoteric teachers") like Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra. 

These esoteric teachings would later flourish in Japan under the auspices of a Buddhist monk named Kūkai (空海, 774–835), who traveled to Tang China and received these esoteric transmissions from a Chinese master named Huiguo (746–805).

Kūkai established his tradition at Mount Kōya (in Wakayama Prefecture), which remains the central pilgrimage center of Shingon Buddhism. More

Check out these otherworldly (inner earth) discoveries and more in this Ancient Aliens compilation:

• 1. Forbidden Caves 0:00
• 2. Underground Aliens 5:45
• 3. Forbidden Caves 2 12:05
• 4. Underground Aliens 2

Our Earth is hollow? - Shush, it's a secret!

Watch full episodes and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at history.com/schedule.

Subscribe for more from Ancient Aliens and other great The HISTORY Channel shows: http://histv.co/SubscribeHistoryYT. Find out more about the show and watch full episodes on website: histv.co/AncientAliens.

Check out exclusive The HISTORY Channel content: History Newsletter - https://histv.co/newsletter Website - https://histv.co/History Facebook - https://histv.co/Facebook Instagram - / history TikTok - / history

ABOUT: "Ancient Aliens" explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years.

ABOUT: HISTORY® is the leading destination for award-winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive, and entertaining manner across all platforms. The network’s all-original programming slate features a roster of hit series, premium documentaries, and scripted event programming.

• #AncientAliens, History Channel, May 15, 2025; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Shingon

Entered: world beneath Egypt's pyramids

Part 2: Massive subterranean complex UNDER Saqqara, Egypt

(Gaia) Premiered May 2, 2025: What new evidence points to a prediluvian (before The Flood) civilization in Egypt that knew how to harness the properties of stone to generate power?

Saqqara, 22 miles south of Giza, holds two of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world: the Djoser Pyramid and the Serapeum, which may be the source of power for Giza.

These monuments are the enduring legacy of Imhotep, a student of Thoth and one of Egypt’s greatest polymaths.

This subterranean complex is so vast and unexplored that the new findings are merely a fragment of the enigma surrounding Saqqara (less than 1%). Will the secrets unearthed finally reveal who built the Serapeum and why? [If it does, we can be sure Zahi Hawass will not be admitting that to the world.]

Brien Foerster enter the Serapeum at Saqqara, Egypt, April 2025

ABOUT: Gaia offers the largest resource of consciousness expanding videos. Answer life's deeper questions and go beyond the mainstream narrative with Gaia — a member-supported media network of truth seekers and believers empowering an evolution of consciousness. Explore over 8,000 ad-free, streaming titles that challenge modern paradigms and allows viewers to manifest the reality that defines our being. Experience Gaia in English, Spanish, German, or French. Gaia offers original, dubbed, and subtitled content in these languages. Join hundreds of thousands of members in 185 countries in awakening consciousness. There are 8,000+ films, shows, and classes on Gaia. Start a FREE trial: cs-link.gaia.com/4lXBvl9

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• 
  

Remote viewers find ETs in secret bases

Project 8200 exposed | CIA psychics find DUMBs, deep underground military (alien) bases

(The Why Files) Premiered Jan. 4, 2024: Exposing Underground Alien Bases: CIA's psychic UFO hunters during the 1960s and 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union fought the Cold War on many fronts.

Some of these engagements were obvious, like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the proxy wars in Asia. Other conflicts were not so obvious. In the 1970s, America and Russia engaged in a new type of warfare: psychic warfare.

The CIA was actively recruiting and training people with a natural talent for remote viewing. Remote viewing is projecting your consciousness to anywhere on Earth and beyond.

One remote viewer, entirely by accident, found himself at Mount Hayes in Alaska. Mount Hayes is in the middle of nowhere. There's no civilization for miles.

But something was calling him to the mountain. Then he looked inside the mountain. There was a base hidden inside Mount Hayes. Then he saw - this was not a base built by humans. When multiple sources confirmed the existence of the base, they soon realized: this was only the beginning.

Use code THEWHYFILES50 to get 50% off first Factor box at bit.ly/48fuHYB! Thanks, Factor, for sponsoring this video. #CIA #UFOs #Aliens

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SOURCES & LINKS

• Alien Bases On The Moon | The Amazing Story of Ingo Swann
• The Nevada Triangle | 2,000 Planes Missing Near Area
• Paul Bennewitz: The Airforce UFO Cover Up That Drove a Man Insane ​​
• Project Serpo: Secret 10-Year Mission to an Alien Planet 40 Light Years Away
• The Stargate Chronicles: Memoirs of a Psychic Spy by Joseph McMoneagle: amzn.to/47sgF5e
• Third Eye Spies documentary (free) amzn.to/3vpPg6k
• CIA Report on ET Bases at Mount Hayes: cia.gov/readingroom/docs...

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🐠 BETTER CHANNELS TO WATCH: 🐠 hecklefishmoriarty 🤓 thewhyfilesbackstage

• Hecklefish Moriarty TWF (The Why Files), Jan. 14, 2024; Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, S. Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

'Aztecs' = Mexica of Aztlan/Atlantis

Arrival from Atlantis (Codex Boturini, Aztlán)

Where was Aztlan? It was a faraway island or continent in the middle of the sea. It may have been inside our Hollow Earth (called Agartha in some traditions), with an internal sea described by Brooks Agnew, separated into seven giant caves or caverns with different groupings or tribes of people. And the people came to Mexico by boat long ago with a memory of their origins in that highly developed civilization, which they recreated in a great empire of temples and pyramids, monuments to the ET "gods" (star people) and dragons (Nāgas, reptilians) and others who shaped them.

Aztec mythology and the origins of humanity | Fate and Fabled

(Storied) July 20, 2022: If the word Nahua (/nah-wah/) sounds unfamiliar, it’s probably because one is used to hearing about them referred to as the “Aztecs.” That is a completely made up name by Anglo researchers.

The history is complicated, but the name Aztecs was popularized by a German explorer in the 1800s to describe the powerful Mesoamerican empire. Nahua culture is richly complex, with stories that reflect and explain the sometimes-confusing duality of nature. Beyond mythology, the Nahua had an interesting political structure, impressive agricultural system, and TWO calendars. Yet, most people these days do not even know them by their real name, the Mexica (source of the name Mexico).

Hosted by Dr. Moiya McTier and Dr. Emily Zarka, FATE & FABLED explores the stories and characters of mythologies from all around the world -- why they came to be and how they impact us still today. Host/writer: Moiya McTier, PhD. Director: David Schulte. Executive Producer: Amanda Fox. Producer: Thomas Fernandes/ Editor/Animator: P.W. Shelton. Assistant Editor: Jordyn Buckland. Illustrator: Sophie Calhoun. Script Editors: Emily Zarka, PhD. and Moiya McTier, PhD. Script Consultant: David Tavárez. Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy. Additional Footage: Shutterstock. Music: APM Music. Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez. Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing. Assistant Director of Programming (PBS): John Campbell Fate & Fabled is produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. Descriptive Audio & Captions provided by The Described and Captioned Media Program.

• USA's Aztec/Mayan culture: Chaco Canyon of the Southwest is a civilization, an empire of 50,000 square miles, with the "Vatican" like city of Chaco, a female line (each with a sixth toe)
• Hidden behind Chichen Itza: 20 lesser-known Mayan ruins that are just as impressive
• Forgotten Mayan cities in Central America that tourists overlook
• VIDEO: Elongated skulls of Peru complete analysis, DNA results and surprising blood types
• Archeologists make incredible 2,400-year-old discovery on top of pyramid ruins
• New Mexico’s famous “Aztec” ruins aren’t Aztec at all – Here’s who really built them
• The two strangest ancient sites on Earth: Puma Punku and Tiwanaku
• Cavern deities of the underworld
• VIDEO: Uncovering the Ancient Site of Chalcatzingo in Mexico
• Allyouneedtoknowaboutearth, YouTube.com; Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Moon is not what we are told (video)

Biggest discoveries found on the Moon (Part 2) | Ancient Aliens

(HISTORY) Jan. 30, 2025: Check out some of these most shocking moon mysteries, in this Ancient Aliens compilation.

New season Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, at 9/8c; stream next day, and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel. Website: history.com/schedule. #AncientAliens Subscribe for more from Ancient Aliens and other great The HISTORY Channel shows: histv.co/SubscribeHistoryYT. Find out more about the show and watch full episodes on site: histv.co/AncientAliens. Check out exclusive The HISTORY Channel content via the History Newsletter (histv.co/newsletter). Website: histv.co/History, histv.co/Facebook, histv.co/Twitter.

ABOUT: "Ancient Aliens" explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years.

HISTORY® is the leading destination for award-winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive, and entertaining manner across all platforms. The network’s all-original programming slate features a roster of hit series, premium documentaries, and scripted event programming.

The moon (Luna, Chandra, Soma) is NOT what we have been (mis-)led to believe
(Gaia) Premiered March 14, 2025: #Gaia #moon #extraterrestrial 8,000+ films, shows, classes on Gaia.com. Start a free trial: cs-link.gaia.com/3XMgbEQ. Inside information concerning earth's moon is revealed by David Adair, who worked to develop technology for secret American programs.

He explains that the moon is not what many of us have been led to believe. It is in fact a hollow vessel [much like the earth and at least one other planet in this solar system] that was transported to our planet eons ago.

Space alien talks about Jesus: bizarre UFO encounters in Finland

The denizens of this not-so-natural (but quite artificial and apparently indestructible, perfectly spherical) satellite have not been pleased with humanity's forays onto the lunar surface. Adair reveals inside information concerning the moon as an artificial body brought here by an ancient E.T. civilization and why it is important that they do not take their moon away.

ABOUT: Gaia offers the largest resource of consciousness expanding videos. Answer life's deeper questions and go beyond the mainstream narrative with Gaia — a member-supported media network of truth seekers and believers empowering an evolution of consciousness. Explore over 8,000 ad-free, streaming titles that challenge modern paradigms and allow viewers to manifest the reality that defines their being. Experience Gaia in English, Spanish, German, or French. Gaia offers original, dubbed, or subtitled content in these languages. Join hundreds of thousands of members in 185 countries in awakening consciousness. Website: gaia.com.

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Amazon created with 'dark earth' recipe

Unseen beings live here: spirits

The Amazon rainforest, the lungs of the planet (along with the chlorophyll plankton of the ocean and Siberian forests) are not natural. They were artificially made by humans [with help from advanced species from space or the center of Hollow Earth]. As humans went far afield, they planted "dark earth" (terra preta), a rich recipe of organisms and nutrients -- mycorrhizae and more -- and grew the forest like a giant garden. Such earth can still be taken from place to place to expand the enormous jungle that is shrinking due to human abuses as animal slaughterers burn down tree groves to make pasture for cows to send methane into the atmosphere (because of being fed inappropriate foodstuffs) and then be killed for their flesh, with rendering plants polluting the waterways.

Recipe for "dark earth" finally uncovered in the Amazon's depths

Some activities contributing to dark earth. A: Processing cassava. B: Waste in middens. C: Backyard crop cultivation. D: Sweeping ash and charcoal from a hearth. E: Kuikuro II village with locations of other photos. F: Spreading cassava waste. G: Spreading ash and charcoal around trees. H: Burning in fields and waste disposal areas. I: Burning waste and crop residue (Schmidt et al., Science Advances, 2023).

.

(ScienceAlert) For such a lush, verdant paradise, the Amazon rainforest's soil can be surprisingly barren. Yet mysteriously fertile "dark earth" called terra preta can be found in patches across hundreds of sites, the origins of which have sparked debate among scientists.

Now new research (science.org) from the U.S. and Brazil says ancient Amazonians intentionally enriched areas of the forest to nourish crops for centuries, locking up carbon in the process.

Modern indigenous groups still use these ancient soil secrets, which could inspire agricultural [ScienceAlert.com: New report predicts southern Amazon rainforest is heading for collapse by 2064] practices and efforts to mitigate climate change.

"Our results demonstrate the INTENTIONAL CREATION of dark earth," the authors write, "highlighting how Indigenous knowledge can provide strategies for sustainable rainforest management and carbon sequestration."

Researchers had been working with Indigenous communities in the Amazon since the early 2000s, and those observations and data were analyzed alongside newer data from 2018 and 2019.

What lives in the Amazon Rainforest?

A: Locations of Kuikuro villages and archaeological sites. Inset shows the study area (red star) and documented archaeological sites with dark earth (black). B: Modern Kuikuro II village. The white circle shows an historic village. C: Seku archaeological site. Magenta dots mark the sample collection locations in B and C. (Schmidt et al., Science Advances , 2023/ScienceAlert).

.

Darker soil around archeological sites in the Kuikuro Indigenous Territory intrigued lead author Morgan Schmidt, a geographer and archeologist who was then at the University of Florida.

"When I saw this dark earth and how fertile it was, and started digging into what was known about it, I found it was a mysterious thing – no one really knew where it came from," Schmidt says.

Located in the Upper Xingu River basin in the southeastern Amazon, the Kuikuro Indigenous Territory has modern villages as well as archeological sites that their ancestors likely inhabited.

"Archaeological research has demonstrated cultural continuity from ancient to modern peoples in the Upper Xingu region," the team writes, "offering an opportunity to examine linkages between present and past activities that have modified soils."

In a modern village, Kuikuro II, the team discovered soil that was strikingly similar to that in the archeological sites. Hundreds of people live in Kuikuro II and rely on the fertile soil to grow food like cassava [tapioca, boba].

In both the ancient and modern sites, the soil fertility was higher in the residential centers than in the periphery.

Throughout the residential areas, "middens" are created for waste and food scraps. After decomposing, these waste piles mix with barren soil to form dark, fertile soil that villagers plant crops in [in what is essentially the definition of modern urban and suburban composting].

"We saw activities they did to modify the soil and increase the elements, like spreading ash on the ground, or spreading charcoal around the base of the tree, which were obviously intentional actions," Schmidt says.

Kuikuro people were interviewed and co-authored the research paper, and it was clear that they intentionally produce dark earth through modern village practices.

To dig into the past, soil from plazas and roads surrounding ancient villages was compared to terra preta from middens – in residential areas and surrounding the roads and plazas.

RESULTS: Samples from both modern and ancient residential areas had significantly higher levels of organic carbon and lower acidity than those from peripheral areas.

"The key bridge between the modern and ancient times is the soil," says Samuel Goldberg, a data analyst at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the time.

"These practices that we can observe and ask people about today, were also happening in the past." 

Some elements, like phosphorus, potassium, and calcium, were more than 10 times as concentrated in the residential samples.

"These are all the elements that are in humans, animals, and plants, and they're the ones that reduce the aluminum toxicity in soil, which is a notorious problem in the Amazon," Schmidt explains.

A conceptual model of an ancient village showing locations of middens and enriched soils (Schmidt et al., Science Advances, 2023).

.

At one ancient site, Seku, researchers estimated 4,500 tonnes of soil carbon were stored, while the modern Kuikuro II village had 110 tonnes of carbon stored in middens.

"The ancient Amazonians put a lot of carbon in the soil, and a lot of that is still there today. That's exactly what we want for climate change mitigation efforts," Goldberg says.

"Maybe we could adapt some of their indigenous strategies on a larger scale, to lock up carbon in soil, in ways that we now know would stay there for a long time." The study has been published in Science Advances. Source

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• Rebecca Dyer, ScienceAlert.com via MSN.com, Oct. 2023, Recipe for "dark earth"; Dhr. Seven, Kelly Ani, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly