Carl William Blegen (January 27, 1887 – August 24, 1971) was an American archaeologist who worked at the site of Pylos in Greece and Troy in modern-day Turkey.

His father was a professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis for more than 30 years and played a major role in the Norwegian Lutheran Church in America.

[2] In Greece, he was a fellow at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens between 1911 and 1913, during which time he worked on excavations at Locris, Corinth and Korakou.

During World War I Blegen was involved with relief work in Bulgaria and Macedonia, receiving the Order of the Redeemer from Greece in 1919.

His excavations at Troy were performed between 1932 and 1938, followed by those at the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, Greece, which began in 1939 and resumed after the Second World War in 1952, continuing until 1966.

A plan was formed by Blegen, Pierce, and Bert Hodge Hill (who seems to have had unreciprocated romantic feelings for Blegen) that Hodge Hill and Thallon would marry at the same time as Pierce and Blegen, and the four would live together; Thallon agreed on condition that she and Pierce would continue to travel and spend time together away from their husbands, and the two couples married and lodged together in Athens in 1924, in a relationship which they referred to as "the Family", "the quartet", and "the Pro Par" (short for "Professional Partnership").

Carl W. Blegen bequeathed a large collection of his documents to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.