Glenn Albert Black

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Glenn Albert Black was an influential archaeologist of the United States. He was born 18 August 1900 in Indianapolis, Indiana and died 2 September 1964.

Black began serious archaeological work before there were many training opportunities in archaeology in the United States, and did not receive a college degree until the award of an honorary degree from Wabash College in 1951. He is considered to have been the only professional archaeologist focusing on Indiana prehistory until the 1960s, and is primarily responsible for the identification of thousands of Native American archaeological sites in the area. He is best known for his posthumously published work at Angel Mounds near Evansville, Indiana, where he later would operate a field school. His innovative excavations at Angel were also inspirational to the University of Chicago Field School, one of the few archaeological training programs in field techniques in the United States in the early 20th century. He is also notable for attempting to investigate the veracity of the Walam Olum account through archaeological means.

In addition to excavation, he also served in the Society for American Archaeology as President (1941-1942), Vice President (1939-1940), and Treasurer (1947-1951). The Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology at Indiana University, established in 1971, is named for him.

[edit] Publications

Black, Glenn Albert. 1967. Angel Site, An Archaeological, Historical and Ethnological Study (with James H. Kellar). Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis. 2 volumes.