Opportunism on the Delaware: A Cottage Flint Tool Industry at the West Shipyard Site

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Stone tools have served invaluable purposes throughout history and prehistory. During the historic period, the use of flint as the sparking instrument in firearms revolutionized warfare and reshaped life. When commercially made flint tools were unavailable or otherwise inaccessible, opportunistic individuals were known to source raw material for gunflints and tinderflints from ballast often found in abundance at maritime ports along the east coast of North America. Excavations at the West Shipyard site in Philadelphia revealed evidence of a cottage flint tool industry that capitalized on the abundant and likely free ballast raw material deposited by ships. This poster will detail the flint assemblage recovered at this late 17th and early 18th-century shipyard and discuss what it can reveal about life in early Philadelphia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025   •
• 2025 SHA Poster Submissions

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow