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Thin carpets of worn and abraded sherds frequently occur over many square kilometers of ground around archaeological sites in the Middle East. Sherd scatters around three sites in Iran, Oman, and Syria are described. It is suggested that the artifacts arrive as a result of transport of compost or manure incorporating urban refuse from the city to the nearby fields. The sherd scatters occupy a zone of between 3 and 6 km. radius around the sites, and this belt, it is suggested, corresponds to the inner zone of intensive cultivation. The data presented give some empirical support to concepts of site-catchment analysis and also suggest that the use of manure in agriculture can be traced back to at least the 3rd millennium B.C.
T. J. Wilkinson (Fri,) studied this question.