Ida Carleton Hill ( Thallon; August 11, 1875 – December 14, 1954) was an American archaeologist, classical scholar and historian. Hill had a strong interest in the relationship between history, geography, and archaeology, which was reflected in her research and publications over her fifty-year career.
Early life and education
Ida Carleton Thallon was born on August 11, 1875, to John and Grace (Green) Thallon. She attended Packer Collegiate Institute for Girls in Brooklyn, New York. She obtained a Bachelor of Art Degree (AB) from Vassar College in 1897.
Early archaeological and academic career
Hill attended the American School of Classical Studies in Athens from 1899 to 1901. Joining her at the school was fellow Vassar alumna Lida Shaw King. King and Hill were friends who travelled together for three months in Europe before starting classes. They would later collaborate on archaeological publications.
While at school, archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld's lectures on the topography of Athens had a strong influence on Hill. She was also inspired by friend and fellow student Harriet Boyd. Boyd was a strong advocate for allowing women students to participate in excavations and was successful in gaining permission from the school director to excavate a site of her choosing.
In 1900 when Hill returned for her second year, school director Rufus Richardson offered King and Hill the publication of the terracottas from Corinth. They began this project together, but Hill completed the project twenty four years later. During this time in Athens, Hill also studied geometric vases for her Master's thesis at Vassar.
Hill's first experience of fieldwork was in February 1901, when she participated in the excavation at Vari Cave, Attica, under the direction of Charles Weller. Hill and King worked again together as part of his team. Hill kept a journal during her time in the field and in the journal she describes the "day by day progress which yielded several inscriptions, hundreds of lamps and coins, and several reliefs of Pan, Hermes and the Nymphs." Hill was assigned the study of the marble reliefs, which she published in 1903.
In 1901 Hill finished her master's degree (AM) at Vassar. She then accepted a position from her alma mater as an instructor in the Greek and Roman Studies Department. She spent two years teaching Greek, from 1901 to 1903. In 1903 she enrolled at Columbia University for graduate work and completed her PhD in 1905. Her dissertation was Lycosura and the Date of Damophon, which was published in the American Journal of Archaeology. From 1906–1907 she returned to Vassar and taught Latin classes. In the next year Hill moved to the history department where she was promoted to associate professor of ancient history. She taught history classes from 1907 to 1924. While at Vassar, Hill published her first book, Readings in Greek History, From Homer to the Battle of Cheronea; a Collection of Extractions from the Sources (1914). The book was very well received. Hill had a strong interest in the study of history, with an emphasis on the relationship between history and geography and also between history and archaeology and during these years started to research and publish her findings.
In 1916, Hill published an article discussing the connections between archaeology and history and the mutual dependence of the two sciences. In 1919 and 1921 she published two articles focusing on the connection between history and geography. Her 1919 publication compared the city of Troy's historical and physical connection with the Balkans and the Danube. In 1921, she wrote about the connection of history and geography in an article on prehistoric and classical Greece and Italy, where she said "we are learning also that despite man's ingenuity certain fixed conditions in the physical characteristics of an area have made him follow the same routes from time immemorial either by land or by sea and have determined his economic, if not always his political, fate."
Later archaeological career
In 1923, Hill travelled to Italy and Greece to work on a publication on pre-Roman Italy with the focus being the relationship between archaeology and history. The following year, she resigned from Vassar and made Athens her permanent home, where she lived with Bert Hodge Hill, then Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, whom she had married in 1924; her long-term partner Elizabeth Pierce Blegen; and Pierce Blegen's husband Carl Blegen.