Glenn Albert Black (August 18, 1900 –September 2, 1964) was an American archaeologist, author, and part-time university lecturer who was among the first professional archaeologists to study prehistoric sites in Indiana continuously. Black, a pioneer and innovator in developing archaeology field research techniques, is best known for his excavation of Angel Mounds, a Mississippian (A.D. 1050–1450) community near present-day Evansville, Indiana, that he brought to national attention. Angel Mounds was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. Black was largely self-taught and began serious work on archaeological sites in Indiana in the 1930s, before there were many training opportunities in archaeology in the United States. He is considered to have been the first full-time professional archaeologist focusing on Indiana's ancient history, and the only professional archaeologist in the state until the 1960s. During his thirty-five-year career as an archaeologist in Indiana, Black also worked as a part-time lecturer at Indiana University Bloomington from 1944 to 1960 and conducted a field school at the Angel site during the summer months.

Black's major public works include "Excavation of the Nowlin Mound: Dearborn County Site 7, 1934-1935" (1936) and the two-volume study, Angel Site: An Archaeological, Historical and Ethnological Study (1967), which was posthumously published. Black received financial support and encouragement for his work from his friend, Eli Lilly. Wabash College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1951. Black, a founding member of the Society for American Archaeology, served as its president (1941–1942), vice president (1939–1940), and treasurer (1947–1951). The Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, established in 1965 on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Indiana, was named in his honor and dedicated on April 21, 1971; it continues to encourage academic research, as well as preserving and exhibiting Indiana's archaeological history.

Glenn Albert Black was born on August 18, 1900, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Emma (Kennedy) and John A. Black. Glenn's father, a wholesale grocery clerk, died in 1912, when Glenn was about twelve years old. Black attended public schools in Indianapolis and graduated from Arsenal Technical High School in 1916. After high school, he played drums in the Sacramento Syncopators, a traveling Dixieland band. By 1926 Black was working as a cost estimating engineer for Fairbanks, Morse and Company, an industrial scales manufacturer. During his free time, he studied archaeology and the prehistory of Indiana as a hobby. Black visited prehistoric sites around Indiana before volunteering in November 1930 to assist the Indiana Historical Society with archaeological surveys.

As with many archaeologists in the 1910s and 1920s, Black did not attend college. He was largely self-taught. His only formal professional training in archaeology was with Henry C. Shetrone in Columbus, Ohio, at the Ohio State Museum, where he worked from October 1931 to May 1932. Black was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from Wabash College in 1951.

Black and Ida May Hazzard married On October 27, 1931. She shared his interest in archaeology and joined him in the excavations at Nowlin Mound. The couple moved to the Angel Mounds site in the late 1930s.

Most of Black's research took place in Indiana. He began archaeological work in the 1930s, when the field began to mature as a profession and in the years before there were many training opportunities in archaeology in the United States. Although he never attended college and did not earn a degree in archaeology, Black is considered to have been the first full-time professional archaeologist focusing on Indiana's ancient history. He was also the only professional archaeologist in the state until the 1960s. In addition, Black became a well-respected researcher, an Indiana University lecturer, an author, and an authority on the prehistory of Indiana.

Black launched his career as a professional archeologist after volunteering in 1927 at Albee Mound in Sullivan County, Indiana. (Albee Mound was the first professional archaeological excavation in Indiana.) Black also worked on the Whitewater Valley archaeological survey in Indiana in the late 1920s. Both projects were led by Christopher B. Coleman, director of the Indiana Historical Commission (which later became the Indiana Historical Bureau), and J. Arthur MacLean, director of the John Herron Art Institute, and sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society. Through these projects, Black met and befriended Eli Lilly, who became president of Eli Lilly and Company in 1932. Lilly shared Black's interest in Indiana prehistory and financially supported and encouraged Black's archaeological career. Lilly paid for Black's studies in Ohio and initially funded Black's archaeological work in Indiana with his own funds, including Black's salary during his early years at the Indiana Historical Society.

In November 1930, Black wrote to Dr. Coleman to volunteer his services as an archaeologist, and in 1931, when the Fairbanks, Morse and Company relocated to Wisconsin, Black resigned his position in order to stay in Indiana and support his family. In May 1931, the Indiana Historical Society hired Black to serve as a local guide and driver to Warren K. Moorehead, a nationally known archaeologist from Ohio State University and the Peabody Foundation who helped create archaeological programs for the study of the eastern part of the United States; Eli Lilly, who served as the president of the Indiana Historical Society from 1932 to 1947; and E. Y. Guernsey, who did archaeological work for Indiana Historical Society. The purpose of their trip was to assess Indiana archaeological sites. In June 1931, Lilly and the Indiana Historical Society hired Black to continue archaeological work in the state.