What can be found in middens?

A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation.

When was shell middens found?

Sea levels stabilised between 6-7000 years ago, and most middens along the present coastline were formed since that time. The dates of middens, their location and their contents, indicate that different areas of the coast were used at different times, generally when they were most productive.