A
midden, also known as a
kitchen
midden, or a
shell heap, is a
dump for domestic waste. The word is of
Scandinavian via
Middle English derivation, but is used by
archaeologists worldwide to describe any
kind of feature containing waste products relating to day-to-day
human life. They may be convenient, single-use pits created by
nomadic groups or long-term, designated
dumps used by
sedentary communities that
accumulate over several generations. In the latter case, a midden's
stratigraphy can become apparent.
General middens
Midden deposits can contain a variety of archaeological material,
including animal
bone,
feces,
shell,
botanical material,
vermin,
sherds,
lithics
(especially
debitage), and other
artifact and
ecofacts associated with past human occupation.
These
features, therefore,
provide a useful resource for
archaeologists who wish to study the
diet and habits of past societies. Middens
with damp,
anaerobic
conditions can even preserve
organic remains which can be analyzed to
obtain information regarding
climate and
seasonal use.
Generally, a midden is laid down in deposits as the debris of daily
life are tossed on the pile. Each individual toss will contribute a
different mix of materials depending upon the activity associated
with that particular toss. During the course of deposition,
sedimentary material is desposited as well, by any number of
mechanisms, from wind and water to animal digs. This creates a
matrix which can also be analyzed to provide seasonal and climatic
information. In some middens individual dumps of material can be
discerned and analysed.
Examples
The
East Chisenbury midden is a famous example of a large dump, dating
to the 1st millennium BC.
Situated
on Salisbury
Plain in the United Kingdom, the midden mound contains numerous discrete layers
of flint, charcoal,
bones, pottery and excrement. It survives to a height of 2.5
m and measures 140 m in width despite 2,500 years of weathering.
The accumulation is believed by some archaeologists to have a
ritual basis, with organised deposition of
waste suggested as an explanation for its size and
longevity.Middens in SW Greenland indicate the prevalence and
eventual decline of society there.
Shell middens
A
shell midden or
shell mound is
an
archaeological feature comprised
mainly of
mollusk shells.Like all middens,
shell middens also contain the debris of human activity and remains
of their meals. Some shell middens are processing remains: areas
where aquatic resources were processed directly after harvest and
prior to use or storage in a distant location. Some shell middens
are directly associated with villages, as a designated village dump
site. In other middens the material is directly associated with
houses in the village; each house would dump their garbage directly
outside the house. In all cases, shell middens are extremely
complex and very difficult to excavate fully and exactly. However,
the fact that they contain a detailed record of what food was eaten
or processed and many fragments of
stone
tools and household goods makes them invaluable objects of
archaeological study.
Shells have a high
calcium
carbonate content, which tends to make the middens
alkaline. This slows the normal rate of decay
caused by soil acidity, leaving a relatively high proportion of
organic material (food remnants, organic tools, clothing, human
remains) available for archaeologists to find.
The
archaeological study of shell middens
began in Denmark in the
latter half of the 19th century. The Danish word for shell
mound or midden mound
køkkenmødding or
koekken-moedding is now used internationally.
Examples
Shell middens are found in coastal zones all over the world.
Consisting mostly of
mollusc shells, they
are interpreted as being the waste products of meals eaten by
nomadic groups or hunting parties. Some are small examples relating
to meals had by a handful of individuals, others are many metres in
length and width and represent centuries of shell deposition.
In
Brazil they are known as sambaquis, having been created over a long period
between the 6th millennium BC and
the beginning of European colonisation.
On
Canada's west coast there are shell middens that run for
more than a kilometer along the coast and are several meters
deep. The midden in Namu, British
Columbia is over 9 meters deep and spans over 10,000 years
of continuous occupation.
Shell middens created in coastal regions of Australia by
indigenous Australians hold
particular significance in
Australia
today. Aboriginals were a hunter-gatherer nomadic people who left
no permanent structures, and middens provide evidence of prior
occupation in native title claims and indigenous cultural
assessment of mining and other developments. Some caution should be
exercised in interpreting whether these middens were man-made or
developed by natural wave action. One would expect hunter-gatherers
to efficiently harvest only edible shellfish and transport them to
a secluded campsite to cook and eat. Yet many of these middens
contain a high proportion of small and non-edible shells, and the
sites are often on exposed promontories devoid of wood fuel. There
are good examples on the Freycinet Peninsula in Tasmania where wave
action currently is combining charcoal from forest fire debris with
a mix of shells into masses that storms deposit above high water
mark. Shell mounds near Weipa in far north Queensland that are up
to 13 meters high and several hundred meters long were originally
considered to be middens, but are now attributed to natural
causes.
Other definitions
The word
"midden" is still in everyday use in Scotland, and has
come by extension, to refer to anything that is a mess, including
people. In
West Yorkshire a
midden is an outdoor toilet, typically in the back yards of
terraced houses. Often attached to this small building is an
outhouse which houses dustbins.
In the animal kingdom, ground burrows, also known as middens, are
used mostly for food storage. For example, the North American Red
Squirrel (
Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) usually has one large
active midden in each territory with perhaps an inactive or
auxiliary midden.
See also
References
External links