In this activity, students investigate what historic rubbish dumps (called middens) can reveal about people’s daily lives and the resources they used.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- talk about what ancient middens tell us about past lives
- understand that discarded rubbish can tell us indirectly about the environment
- predict what will happen to today’s rubbish in the future
- extract information from written text.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background
- what you need
- what to do
- extension ideas
- student handout.
Useful links
Learn more about regulations around middens and archaeological sites on the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga website.
See the New Zealand Archaeological Association for more information about archaeological sites in Aotearoa New Zealand.
