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Bluffs as preferred sites: Denevan 1996.

More than half are trees: Clement 1998 (80 percent); 1999a:199. I am grateful to Dr. Clement for sending me copies of his work.

Uses of peach palm: Interviews, Clement; Mora-Urpí, Weber, and Clement 1997 (“only their wives,” quoted on 19); Clement and Mora-Urpí 1987 (yield); Denevan 2001:77 (saws).

Domestication of peach palm: Clement 1995, 1992, 1988.

Agricultural regression and fallows forests: Balée 2003 (“These old forests,” 282); 1994.

Anthropogenic forests: Interviews, Balée, Clement, Erickson, Nigel Smith, Stahl, Woods; Balée 1998; 1989 (11.8 percent, 14); Erickson 1999 (I am grateful to Prof. Erickson for sending me a copy of this paper); Smith 1995; Stahl 2002,1996.

“Gift from the past”: I have lifted this phrase from the title of Petersen, Neves, and Heckenberger 2001.

Terra preta: Much of what follows below is taken from the excellent Lehmann et al. eds. 2003; Glaser and Woods eds. 2004; and Petersen, Neves, and Heckenberger 2001. For a popular treatment, see Mann 2002b, 2000b. Lehmann et al. argue that from a scientific standpoint ADE (Amazonian dark earth) is a better term than terra preta. I use terra preta to avoid acronyms.

Terra preta valued: Smith 1980:562. Smith’s fine early article on terra preta was largely ignored on publication—“I got two reprint requests for that article,” he told me. “Nobody was ready to hear it.”

Terra preta distribution estimates: Author’s interviews, Woods, Wim Sombroek; Sombroek et al. 2004:130 (.1–.3 percent); Kern et al. 2004:52–53 (terra preta sites every five kilometers along tributaries).

Maya heartland: The Maya heartland—from Petén, Guatemala, and Belize north to southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico—covers about fifteen thousand square miles, a third or half of which was devoted to agriculture.

Charcoal: Glaser, Guggenberger, and Zech 2004; Glaser, Lehmann, and Zech 2002. My thanks to Prof. Glaser for giving me a copy of this article.

Microbial activity: Author’s interview, Janice Theis; Theis and Suzuki 2004; Woods and McCann 1999 (inoculation). I thank Joe McCann for giving me a copy of this article.

Charcoal and global warming: Author’s interview, Ogawa; Okimori, Ogawa, and Takahashi 2003.

Kayapó: Author’s interviews, Hecht; Hecht 2004 (“low-biomass,” “cool,” 362–63; “To live,” 364). I am indebted to Prof. Hecht for several fascinating discussions.

Terra preta experiments: Author’s interview, Steiner; Steiner, Teixeira, and Zech 2004.

Río Negro site: Author’s interviews, Bartone, Neves, Petersen; Heckenberger, Petersen, and Neves 2004, 1999.

Timing of terra preta at plantation: Neves et al. 2004:table 9.2.

Xingu and black earth: Heckenberger et al. 2003 (“regional plan,” “bridges,” 1711; “built environment,” 1713). For criticism, see Meggers 2003.

Santarém terra preta: Interviews, Woods, Sombroek; author’s visit; Kern et al. 2004.

Meggers reaction: Meggers 2001 (“without restraint,” 305; “accomplices,” 322). A response appears in Heckenberger, Petersen, and Neves 2001.

“rev up”: DeBoer, Kintigh, and Rostoker 2001:327.

“Rather than adapt”: I swipe this phrase from Erickson 2004 (“Native Amazonians did not adapt to nature, but rather they created the world that they wanted through human creativity, technology and engineering, and cultural institutions,” 456).

10 / The Artificial Wilderness

“all the trees”: Columbus 1963:84. I discovered this quotation, and the ideas around it, in Crosby 2003:3–16, 1986:9–12 (knitting together Pangaea).

Invention of Columbian Exchange: McNeill 2003:xiv.

Kudzu: Blaustein 2001; Kinbacher 2000.

A thousand kudzus everywhere: Crosby 1986:154–56 (spinach, mint, peach, endive, clover), 161 (Darwin), 191 (Jamestown, Garcilaso).

Cod and sea urchins: Jackson et al. 2001.

Keystone species: Wilson 1992:401.

“widowed land”: Chapter title in Jennings 1975.