120 DR ROBERT MUNRO ON 
Kitchen-middens—a title so unprepossessing, that I fear 
some of you are present here to-night more from the spirit 
of curiosity than with the expectation of deriving scientific 
information. Let me, however, remind you that the science 
of anthropology is only in its infancy, and that its evidential 
materials are not yet sufficiently sifted to enable us to 
decide which are the most important. Of course, the 
farther back we go in our researches the human element 
becomes less pronounced, until its “waifs and strays” are 
scarcely distinguishable from the works of Nature. 
Kitchen-middens are not peculiar to any stage or phase 
in human civilisation, for as soon as the members of a 
family or tribe selected a suitable place of abode, whether 
cave, rock-shelter, or hut, food-refuse and other débris 
would begin to accumulate around them. The Troglodytes. 
of the Reindeer period, who lived chiefly on the flesh of the 
reindeer, scattered the bones and other waste materials all 
over the floor of the cave. When huts and houses began 
to be constructed, it is probable that some semblance of 
house-cleaning would be inaugurated, the effect of which 
would be to remove useless débris, at least the coarser 
materials, into a refuse heap. Thus, in most of the Scottish 
crannogs investigated by me, there was a localised midden 
outside the entrance to the wooden dwelling-house—a habit 
which is not yet extinct in many localities within the so- 
called Celtic fringe. That, however, in early times, even 
when a high state of culture and civilisation was reached, 
people were not very particular on this score, we have 
ample evidence to show. The authors of The Mycenzan 
Age, after informing us (p. 68) that Mycenzan houses had 
been constructed with two stories, the lower of which was 
used as a receptacle for rubbish such as broken dishes and 
the bones of various animals, make the following remarks :— 
“Tt would seem from this that these upper-story people were 
not over-nice at table, and habitually flung their leavings 
downstairs or through chinks in the floor. However, we 
need not be shocked at this, considering the table manners. 
we sometimes meet with in Homeric society. The noble 
wooers of Penelope are no more refined in their feeding. 
Not only do we see them flinging the bare bones on the 
