by Bran Herbert

Created on: May 07, 2007   Last Updated: March 10, 2009

Archaeologists generally refer to ancient trash as middens, and we get very excited about them. They allow us to play the part of a detective, teasing apart the details of history from the scraps that, at the time, those ancient peoples thought were unimportant.

The most valuable part of trash is that it offers a snapshot of the life of the people in the area. Items that they generally used in their everyday lives - as well as important, high-status goods - often find their way to the trash bin, just as they do today. Most of the time you're throwing away food and empty cans, but every now and then your cat knocks over a plate of nice China and that ends up getting chucked in with the rest of the trash. This gives us a very good look at all aspects of a past life-way.

When archaeologists find "trash," it is usually in one or more states of discard:

1) Intentional placement in burial. This is good for preservation, as the artifacts are usually intact and may be intricately designed.

2) Abandonment at the site of use. This is when someone simply drops their trash right on the site, a bit like littering today, and they never come back for it. Sometimes this is evidence of some sort of disaster, such as a fire, where they had to drop what they were doing and leave.

3) Abandonment at the site of discard. This is when something is taken away from the main site of habitation and discarded. Some examples of this would be a shipwreck or a pot that was accidentally dropped and then left.

4) Transported from their place of discard. This is also sometimes called "secondary context" and implies that an artifact was discarded and then moved by either natural or artificial means. Natural means include flooding, gravity, and rodents, while artificial means usually refer to human activity, such as plowing.

A careful archaeologist can glean an enormous amount of information from just about any accumulation of material, but ancient trash still proves to be one of the best ways of getting a glimpse into the past.

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