Ever Hunt a trash pit?

[SurfaceHunter]

I do believe Im in a trash pit where I am looking in this spot. I look on many properties fields and creeks with permission. (disclaimer) have to give that info due to Georgia laws. But anyways I have found a lot of items here in the area that are broken or used up. I will give some examples but I was wondering if anybody else has ever found anything whole in a trash pit and if so post your finds. Drove past it today and its flooded cant wait to get back and find something else. Also how close is the campsite to a trash pit usually? Even the Celt I am about to post I found there and it has a hairline crack going all the way around it so I do believe it was dumped as well. I would guess both halves of a Celt of flaked ax would be there as well but I only have found mostly halves of the bigger pieces. Any info would be great!! Thanks

[SurfaceHunter]

I have more but these are good examples

[Kentucky point]

I have never hunted a trash pit, but that is some cool stuff you're pulling out!

[SurfaceHunter]

Did you notice the bear tooth in the 1st pic? Thanks its fun looking just never know what I might find.

[Kentucky point]

Hmm. I did not notice that. Must be my eyes ;-)

[redrocks]

Nice finds...what do you think that piece in pic#5 might be?..when you say trash pit...you mean like a midden?

[gregszybala]

A lot of different lithics coming out of there. Has to be fun to hunt, never know what is going to pop up.

[tomclark]

Redrocks and I ask: Trash pit = midden? Shell??

[SurfaceHunter]

Nice finds...what do you think that piece in pic#5 might be?..when you say trash pit...you mean like a midden?

I guess it might be the same but not sure. Its usually a waste pit from what I understand and the creek is cutting rite through it. I find pottery to and all kinds of material that has been worked. Pic 5 I would guess its either a broken flaked hoe or ax. I have found other halves of flaked tools like it all kinds of quartzite and flint. I save all the big pieces hoping to find the other halves but no luck yet. Drill on the left missing tip

[redrocks]

Cool drill

[sailorjoe]

What exactly do you mean by trash pit? Tom Clark seems to have the same question. If you mean that it is the area of a village where "trash" was deposited like for example what we in modern times may refer to as the town or city dump then in archeological terms it is usually referred to as a midden. It can be the refuse from a small camp or larger village. And as such a wide variety of things may be found there. But IMO they did not haul their spent or unused lithic material to a midden, although sometimes points could end up there. If a creek begins eroding an occupational site, a variety of objects can be found. Often then as people do in modern times they throw their refuse into the nearest stream This happens all the time nowadays in Central America where folks without any government paid for garbage collection toss their trash into the nearest stream. Consequently, when you sail past those streams that enter the Caribbean Sea we see all kinds of trash in the tide lines. Especially, nowadays plastic bags by the thousands. But to answer your question, I have hunted thru middens, mostly along the Tennessee River and that was many years ago. Mostly they were shell middens where the folks were harvesting the abundant mussels from the river and once the shells were opened and the meat extracted would toss the shells in a heap. Often there was broken clay pottery in the midden and bone sometimes. Some of the earlier dated middens could produce broken stone pots made from steatite/soapstone.

[SurfaceHunter]

There is a old dump way up the creek some place I find old bottles at times. I call it Bottle Creek. I have found some soapstone frags but not in this spot yet. Those are for a different post.

[tomclark]

Trash Pits/Middens are some of the very best most killer stupendous wonderful places to find supreme, gawdawful, filthy, schweeet goodies.

[Jethro355]

Mississippian sites are lousy with what I think Surface Hunter is calling “trash pits”. I’ve discovered and excavated several of them, or what we call trash pits. They are usually about 18” in diameter and about 2.5-3’ deep, and the depth is usually from where house flooring level is. It was explained to me by an archaeologist lady that the natives would dig such a hole in relative close proximity to the dwelling for disposal of food waste (bones and such) and shells, busted rocks, and pottery, as this is always what we find in them. Apparently they would throw some scraps in, and when it was getting kinda funky, they’d throw a bit of soil over the remains, and start over until the hole filed up, then they’d dig a new one and start the process over.

I’ve always thought a “ midden” was what we find less frequently, but also close to a camp site, that contained almost exclusively muscle shells, fish bones/scales, and turtle bones.

maybe we just use the words all wrong.

[clovisoid]

I've played around in many trash pits in the Midwest, and what you describe is what I have seen while digging. A lot of them had one or more layers of charcoal & ash from fires. Usually a great place to find broken tools and neat things, but not great for complete relics.

The middens I've seen are usually in the water or right on the edge and are just long stretches of piled up shells. After a couple of hundred years of floods and decay the shells are often broken and compressed, but once you get into them there is a surprising little amount of dirt. Just a lot of broken shell and the occasional bone or tool mixed in.

Down in Texas the middens are usually burned rock from cooking sotol bulbs and other roots. Lots of stuff on the outer edges.

[SurfaceHunter]

That sounds about rite as to what I am finding the Celt is a square Mississippian. In the creek I do find Archaic as well but not a lot.

[tomclark]

Down here in FL along the coasts they lived atop their own shell trash middens, in some cases even buried their dead in the same middens....so a lot of lost and broken tools are in there along with the "trash". I was told early in my hunting days that it was a waste of time hunting eroding shell middens because they were trash piles. Au contraire. Almost my entire collection of whole artifacts (bone, shell and stone) comes from shell middens. Here's some post-stormy pics of a shell midden that was eroding out. In some pics you can see fire-pit features and other features. Much different from non-coastal middens and trash pits.

[sailorjoe]

Hi Tom. Those pics remind me of what I saw along the Tennessee River. Looks almost exactly the same.

[SurfaceHunter]

Thanks for the pics Tom

[SurfaceHunter]

I havent seen anything like that there yet. The material gets scattered as it floods Im still trying to figure out exactly where it is coming from I do know I find it in 2 spots close to each other. Here is some others I have found the better ones. I have more still but only lets me upload 8 pics at a time.

[CMD]

There is a difference between middens and what we call refuse pits. Obviously middens can be enormous in size, and represent garbage deposits spanning many years. And they are often above ground features. I'm familiar with a smattering of surviving examples in RI. A refuse pit is exactly as the name implies. Dig a hole. Fill with garbage. Cover hole. The wife and I used to walk a field that contained numerous small refuse pits, that were plowed up year after year. Like middens, most of the refuse consisted of shellfish remains. There was one huge benefit to their presence. The lime from the shell allowed for the preservation of pottery sherds, which are hard to find otherwise in our fairly acidic soil. It was also a very sandy soil, which also helped. So we were very lucky to have a field where we could find pottery, always small pieces, but quite a few decorated, and always in areas where the shell refuse pits were located. Some stone artifacts turned up in such areas as well, and rarely bone, but no actual bone artifacts.

[SurfaceHunter]

Thanks for sharing some of your knowledge CMD and your story.
On the last bit of pics this owner owns Im guessing 2 miles of the creek and lets me look whenever I like. So some of those finds could be from different sections of the creek. I just didnt want some people to think they all came from the trash pit. Thanks

[Helldogg]

In Ohio, the early settlers were always concerned the horses would cut their feet on sharp pieces of flint. They would send their children to the field with a bucket and have them pick up as much flint as possible. Often times it would be taken behind the barn or trash pit and dumped. This essentially makes a man made cache of artifacts that very few people ever touched. The same was done with hardstones.

[SurfaceHunter]

Thats interesting cause there is a old home there some place cause I see the red bricks in the creek. I havent swung my MD yet but maybe 1 day I will in that spot. Lots of copperheads in that area. I always wear snake boots.