kitchen midden

English

Noun

kitchen midden (plural kitchen middens)

  1. (archaeology) An ancient refuse heap composed primarily of domestic waste from daily meals, such as animal bones, mollusc shells, charcoal, and broken tools.
    • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 358:
      The chief food of the people was evidently shell-fish, since great heaps of the shells had accumulated in the shallow water between the houses and the land, forming a regular "kitchen-midden" for the exploration of some future archeologist.
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