Be very very careful what you call worked glass. Glass has a tendency to
produce an edge that looks worked or used when trampled upon.  I can show
you many examples that looked worked but are not.   Break a bottle outside
and step on it (with boot on of course) and check out the fragments you may
be surprised.

----- Original Message -----
From: Philip A. Perazio <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 12:38 PM
Subject: Glass scrapers


> I have been analyzing a small historic artifact collection from
northwestern
> Pennsylvania and have come across several examples of late historic/modern
> (post 1870) glass fragments that show evidence of usewear and edge
> preparation/retouch indicating use in a fashion similar to prehistoric
> Native American scraping tools. These artifacts were collected from a
> domestic refuse scatter loosely associated with a late nineteenth century
> farmhouse. Several of these glass fragments are from machine made glass
> containers, one glass fragment is manganese solarized, another is pink
> machine-pressed table glass common during the Depression. I am aware of
> worked glass on earlier sites, but the late date is puzzling. Though this
> could be the work of either Native Americans or Europeans, there are no
> known contemporary Native American settlements in this vicinity. Has
anyone
> come across any reference to something like this on later European sites?
> Native American Sites?
>
> Kira Presler
> Kittatinny Archaeological Research, Inc.