[A transl. of Da. kjökken- or kökkenmödding: see KITCHEN and MIDDEN, dung-hill, refuse-heap.] A refuse-heap of prehistoric date, consisting chiefly of the shells of edible mollusks and bones of animals, among which are often found stone implements and other relics of early man. Also fig. and attrib.
Such mounds are especially characteristic of the Danish coast, and were first brought into scientific notice by Danish archæologists, but they are also found in many other parts of the world.
[1862. Latham, Channel Isl., III. xviii. (ed. 2), 415. Just as in the Danish kjokkemiddings whole heaps of shells of the edible mollusca have been preserved.]
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, xix. 372. The old refuse-heaps, or ‘kitchen-middens.’
1877. Dawson, Orig. World, xiv. 311. The accumulation of kitchen-midden stuff in the course of the occupancy of caverns.
1883. Contemp. Rev., June, 788. The mental kitchen middens of generations of savages.
