Midden (noun, “MID-den”)
A midden is a garbage pile or dump site left by ancient people. This word also describes a pile of items gathered by an animal.
Old trash heaps can contain artifacts of ancient life. Fossilized scraps from a kitchen dump site can tell us how our ancestors cooked their food. Other sites may contain broken tools, pottery fragments or other clues about people of the past.
Imagine you live in an ancient village along a coastline. You and your people catch food from the sea, especially clams and mussels. You sit at the same site each day to crack open shells and extract the meat. You toss empty shells into the same pile. A thousand years later, an archeologist discovers this shell midden.
From this trash heap, the archeologist might learn more than just what was on your menu. They also might estimate how many people lived in your village and whether you used tools to open shells.
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English (US)