ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses an ongoing debate in Mediterranean survey archaeology concerning 'background scatter': a widespread phenomenon frequently characterized as low-density distributions of artefacts, sometimes appearing as an almost unbroken or continuous carpet across the landscape. It presents observations on manure formation, collection and deposition in a traditional Greek farming community. The chapter concentrates on behaviours leading to the differentiated inclusion of artefacts into distinct waste streams, and the agricultural decision-making processes which inform the variable deposit of manure in the landscape. It explores the domestic and agricultural practicalities involved in forming, transporting and depositing manure and any associated artefacts, on small family farms. The deposition in the countryside was neither random, nor even, but related to decision-making processes linked both to environmental variables in the landscape and factors associated with the biological dictates of the particular crops being grown.