Carl Blegen

Carl William Blegen (January 27, 1887 – August 24, 1971) was an United States archeologist famous for his work on the site of Pylos in modern day Greece and Troy in modern day Turkey.

Life

Carl William Blegen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 27, 1887. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1904 and started graduate studies at Yale University in 1907. He became a fellow (1911-13) at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. It was during this time Blegen worked on excavations at Locris, Corinth, and Korakou.

When World War I broke out in Europe, Blegen became involved in relief work in Bulgaria and Macedonia, for which he received the Saviors Order from Greece in 1919. Following the war he returned to United States to complete his Ph.D. at Yale (1920). He then became an assistant director of the American School of Classical Studies, Athens in 1920, carrying that duty until 1926. During that period he led excavations at Zygouries, Phlius, Prosymna, and Hymettos.

In the summer of 1924 he married Elizabeth Denny Pierce in Lake Placid, New York, a fellow archeologist whom he met in Greece. She became an indispensable partner in his work.

In 1927 Blegen joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, becoming a professor of classical archaeology. He remained on that position for the next 30 years, until his retirement in 1957. During that period he directed the university's excavations of the mound of Hisarlik, the site of Troy, from 1932 to 1938. They were followed by those at the palace of Nestor in Pylos, Greece in 1939 (the dig resumed 1952-58).

Blegen received honorary degrees from the University of Oslo and the University of Thessaloniki in 1951; an honorary D.Litt. from Oxford University in 1957 and an honorary LL.D. from University of Cincinnati in 1958. Further honorary degrees came in 1963: Litt.D. from Cambridge University, and others from the University of Athens, Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. In 1965 the Archaeological Institute of America awarded Blegen the Gold Medal for archeological achievement.

Blagen died in Athens, Greece on August 24, 1971.

Work

File:Troy 3.jpg

A view of the archaeological site

Carl Blegen was absolutely convinced that Homer’s Iliad was based on historical facts, and that Trojan War indeed took place in the legendary city of Troy. In 1932, he began excavations at the Hisarlik site, previously excavated by Heinrich Schliemann (1871-73 and 1878-1879) and Wilhelm Dorpfeld (1893-1894) in 1932, and continued for seven years. He was able to separate remains from different time periods, starting with Troy I and II dating from the bronze-age period. He isolated a total of 47 strata of Troy, and placed them in chronological order. He also photographed and mapped the area, this being the first time that somebody did that for the Troy I and II sites.

The excavations on the Troy VI site revealed that the destruction of its walls was the result of a natural disaster, rather than a war. This claim was in direct contrast to the claim of Wilhelm Dorpfeld, who argued that Agamemnon’s army destroyed Troy, as described in Homer’s Iliad. However Blegen found no evidence for that at Troy VI. Instead, Blegen found evidence of war at the site of Troy VII, for which he claimed to be the original Homer’s Troy. On that location he found remnants of the residential style of living, together with human bones and arrowheads scattered around the location. The city appeared being destroyed by the fire.

In 1939 Blegen discovered another extraordinary found. It was a clay tablet incised in Linear B, an undeciphered script found on Crete, but never before seen on the Greek mainland. Blegen managed to uncover dozens of tablets more, and decipher the script. The text revealed that the site was once a palace, and that its inhabitants wrote in an early form of Greek. Blegen argued that the palace was legendary Pylos, described in Homer’s Iliad, and Nestor its king.

Blegen’s claims were initially well received by a scientific community of his days. His excavation methods and precise documentation of his findings well resonated among archaeologists. However, his critics argued that many of Blegen’s claims were based on pure speculation and that there was no absolute evidence for it.

Legacy

Blegen played important role in clarification of the myth surrounding Homer's Iliad. His excavations of Troy, and later Pylos, found additional evidence of the historical accuracy of the epic.

Blegen also had a school hall named in his honor on the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities Campus. Students attend Blegen Hall today for courses in economics, politics and social sciences.

Publications

• Blegen, Carl W. 1921. Korakou: A prehistoric settlement near Corinth. American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Blegen, Carl W. 1925. The premycenaean pottery of the southern Greek mainland. H. Champion
• Blegen, Carl W. 1937. New Evidence for Dating the Settlements at Troy. Annual of the British School at Athens, 37
• Blegen, Carl W. 1937. The excavations at Troy, 1932-1937. Devlet Basamevi
• Blegen, Carl W. 1962. A guide to the Palace of Nestor. University of Cincinnati Press
• Blegen, Carl W. 1962. The Mycenaean Age: The Trojan War, the Dorian Invasion, and other problems. University of Cincinnati Press
• Blegen, Carl W. 1964. The North Cemetery (Corinth). American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Blegen, Carl W. 1966. The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messinia, (3 vols.). Princeton University Press
• Blegen, Carl W. 1995 (original from 1963). Troy and the Trojans. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 1566198232

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Billeaud, Joseph & Baird, Bill. 1997. Carl Blegen’s work at Troy. at University of Texas
• Caskey, John L. 1972. Carl William Blegen (1887-1971).
• Drews, Robert. 1995. The End of the Bronze Age. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691025916
• Carl William Blegen Papers at The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
• Trigger, Bruce G. 2006. A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521840767

External links

• Carl Blagen – Blegen's biography on The American School of Classical Studies at Athens website
• The Archaeology of Hissarlik – History of archeological excavations of Troy
• Homer's Bones – More on Troy’s excavations
• Blegen Library – Library at the University of Cincinnati dedicated to Carl Blegen.
• Blegen Hall - Located on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.

Credits

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