Flaked Glass Assemblages from Two Plantation and Tenancy Sites in the Virginia Piedmont, United States

Abstract This paper describes assemblages of flaked glass tools recovered from two archaeological sites in the Virginia piedmont. One was produced between about 1790 and 1875, while the other dates to the early twentieth century. Both are from sites of enslavement and later tenancy and were almost certainly made by African Americans. Scrapers for woodworking are the dominant tool type, most produced from bottle glass. These two assemblages have no temporal overlap and are separated by over 20 km, suggesting that they are likely part of a more widespread glass-working tradition that has been widely overlooked by archaeologists.