Debbie Mulligan, age 15, of Barre, Vt., for her question:

WHAT IS A KITCHEN MIDDEN?

A kitchen midden is a mound of rubbish that was left behind by the inhabitants of camps and villages thousands of years ago. Today these provide archeologists with information that allows them to reconstruct the daily life patterns and changing customs of ancient humans.

Tools made of bones and stone, shells of the shellfish used for food, bits of pottery and bones of animals and sometimes of humans have been found in kitchen middens.

Kitchen middens were first found in Denmark. The term comes from the Danish words which mean "kitchen leavings." Scientists have also studied mounds in other parts of Scandinavia and in northern Spain. Mounds left by Indians living along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America have also been found.