Kitchen Midden

a mound of shells, bones, charcoal, and other debris found on the site of ancient dwellings. The word means kitchen refuse. It was applied first by the Danes to enormous deposits of that sort which attracted attention first in Denmark. Kitchen-middens occur usually on the shores of rivers or banks of lakes where savages pitched their tents or other rude habitations for possibly thousands of years.

They abound not only in Denmark, but in Scotland, England, France, and in many parts of North America, as about the great lakes and along the Mississippi. The accumulations are often many feet in depth, sometimes, in fact, forming embankments. Archaeologists find stone implements and other rude utensils, hinting at the life of prehistoric people. Very similar deposits are still accumulating in various parts of the world where savage people dwell. The dumping grounds that disfigure river banks everywhere are the kitchen middens of people calling themselves civilized.