Digging Up Troy: A Worker from the University of Cincinnati Expedition to the Troad (15 min)

Presenters

Jeffrey L. Kramer, University of Cincinnati

Abstract

The leaders of the University of Cincinnati Expedition to the Troad—Carl W. Blegen, Marion Rawson, and John L. Caskey—have their names emblazoned on the covers of all four double-volumes of the final publication, and they are remembered for their excavation at the legendary site of Troy. Yet little is written about the scores of local workers who conducted the actual digging, even though more than 100 served at several points during the seven seasons between 1932–1938. Blegen does briefly thank them in the introduction of the first volume, and he singles out by name Kâni Barin, who participated in all seven seasons, the last four as foreman.

In this paper, I reconstruct, in broad strokes, the life of Kâni Barin, whose experiences—including those before the excavation—often reflect those of his fellow workers, nearly all of whom were refugees following the 1923 compulsory population exchange between Greece and Türkiye. The sources I utilize incorporate hitherto unexamined archival records from the Troy collection in the Archives and Special Collections of the Department of Classics at the University of Cincinnati. As well as notebooks and photographs, this collection also includes extensive financial records for each season listing every expense, including labor. Finally, I supplement this sketch of Kâni’s life with two papers about Troy that Blegen delivered to a private club in Cincinnati.

As I demonstrate, Kâni Barin is an exemplar for humanizing the people by whose labor the findings of the Troy excavation were revealed. His life is both a microcosm of the larger political and economic forces sweeping the region at that time, and he also, personally, illustrates the range of roles that might be filled by locally-hired workers on a “big dig” during the first half of the 20th century. The Troy collection in the University of Cincinnati classics archives provide extensive resources for “digging up” the biography of one worker who helped dig up Troy.