One man\u2019s trash is another man\u2019s treasure, or so researchers analysing Neolithic<\/a> rubbish<\/a> have found.<\/p>\n Archaeologists<\/a> spend much of their careers dealing with the \u201ceveryday leftovers\u201d of those who came before us – but what this waste<\/a> could tell us about their lives is a notion that has largely been discarded.<\/p>\n A team from the University of York<\/a> are now leading a new archaeological project aimed at understanding how Neolithic communities dealt with their waste. They said it can help unlock secrets of our ancestors<\/a>, as well as inspire us to think about new ways of handling our trash.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A new University of York project looks at how Neolithic communities dealt with their growing piles of waste (University of York)<\/p>\n Researchers said Neolithic communities tended to keep their rubbish close to their homes, which could suggest a sense of \u201cownership\u201d and \u201cresponsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n Professor Penny Bickle, from the University of York\u2019s department of archaeology, said: \u201cKeeping rubbish close to the home could suggest a sense of ownership – did they feel responsible for their waste and therefore chose to deal with it within the vicinity of their home?<\/p>\n She added it could also show our ancestors may have been keen recyclers who understood discarded items \u201ccould potentially be used again\u201d. \u201cIn the Western world putting items in a recycling bin and having others ‘deal with it\u2019 is common, but not all cultures operate this way, and so it is possible that the ancient Neolithic farmers had the view that waste is the responsibility of the owner,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n The team also found evidence that these ancient communities kept rubbish close to their home, which researchers said shows they may have had an \u201cemotional attachment\u201d to some pieces.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Rubbish heaps at the Romanian site of T\u0103\u0219nad Sere from the beginning of the 6th millennium BC (Cristian Virag)<\/p>\n Dr Vindrola-Padros, from Christian Albrecht University of Kiel in Germany, said: \u201cOne possible explanation for keeping waste items close to the home is an emotional one – these possessions often carry meaning beyond their practical use, as demonstrated by their inclusion in burial rituals. <\/p>\n \u201cBy delving into these questions, we could help reframe the way we think about waste. Today we push it away from the home for mostly hygiene purposes, but not all waste is unsanitary, and so we hope that in understanding how societies in the past dealt with waste it could provide us with some new ways of thinking about our attitudes towards it today.\u201d<\/p>\n They now plan to survey four archaeological sites across Europe from the Balkans to the Baltic coast. Using scientific techniques and digital tools, they plan to piece together the \u201clife stories\u201d of discarded objects, which could have been used and reused before eventually being discarded.<\/p>\n Professor Henny Piezonka, from Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin\u2019s Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, said he wanted to know whether early farmers saw waste as the \u201cproblem\u201d we do today. \u201cWe want to look at this question more closely and understand what were the challenges of having waste on the doorstep as well as the opportunities for repairing, reshaping, repurposing and reusing it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-595076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115616264161802388","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/rubbish-pits-505.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Rubbish](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Cas--C-C4(13).jpg\")
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