kitchen midden
noun1
Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences An ancient refuse heap composed primarily of domestic waste from daily meals, such as animal bones, mollusc shells, charcoal, and broken tools.
- 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.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 358: