Klaus Schmidt (11 December 1953 – 20 July 2014) was a German archaeologist and prehistorian who led the excavations at

Göbekli Tepe Göbekli Tepe (, ; Kurdish: or , 'Wish Hill') is a Neolithic archaeological site in Upper Mesopotamia (''al-Jazira'') in modern-day Turkey. The settlement was inhabited from around to at least , during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic. It is famou ...

from 1996 to 2014.

Education and career

Klaus Schmidt studied pre- and

protohistory Protohistory is the period between prehistory and written history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures that have developed writing have noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in the ...

, and classical archaeology and

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

at the universities of

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. He completed his doctorate in 1983 at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

under the direction of

Harald Hauptmann Harald Hauptmann (19 April 1936 – 2 August 2018) was a German archaeologist known for his excavation work in east and southeast Turkey at sites such as Norşuntepe. He also studied of pre-Islamic Pakistan. He was a professor at the University ...

. He received a travel stipend from the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

from 1984 to 1986. From 1986 to 1995, he received a research

stipend A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work pe ...

from the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bud ...

. He was employed at the Institute of pre- and proto-history of the Heidelberg University, working on various projects with the German Archaeological Institute and the Heidelberg University. In 1995, he became the leader of the excavations at Gürcütepe and

in Southeast

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Schmidt purchased a house in nearby

Urfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic period, Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain abo ...

, which became his base of operations. His team of archaeologists typically excavated the site of Göbekli Tepe for two months in the spring and two months in the fall. He received his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in 1999 from the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

and in 2000 became

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

in Pre- and Proto-history at the Institute for Pre- and Proto-history of the University of Erlangen. Starting in 2001, he became the referent in

prehistoric archaeology Prehistoric archaeology is a subfield of archaeology, which deals specifically with artefacts, civilisations and other materials from societies that existed before any form of writing system or historical record. Often the field focuses on ages ...

of the Oriental division of the

, and from 2007 was a corresponding member of the institute. Also in 2007, he became an adjunct professor at the University of Erlangen. In a 2011 interview, Schmidt estimated that roughly five percent of the site had been excavated.

Personal life

Klaus Schmidt was married to Turkish archaeologist Çiğdem Köksal-Schmidt. He died of a heart attack while swimming in Germany on 20 July 2014.

Works

* K. Schmidt, 2000b = ''Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey. A preliminary Report on the 1995–1999 Excavations.'' In: ''Paléorient'' CNRS Ed., Paris 2000: 26.1, 45–54, : http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/paleo_0153-9345_2000_num_26_1_4697 * K. Schmidt: "Zuerst kam der Tempel, dann die Stadt". Vorläufiger Bericht zu den Grabungen am Göbekli Tepe und am Gürcütepe 1995–1999. Istanbuler Mitteilungen 50 (2000): 5–41. * K. Schmidt: ''Frühneolithische Tempel. Ein Forschungsbericht zum präkeramischen Neolithikum Obermesopotamiens.'' In: Mitteilungen der deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 130, Berlin 1998, 17–49, * K. Schmidt, 2000a = Göbekli Tepe and the rock art of the Near East, ''TÜBA-AR'' 3 (2000): 1–14. * J. Peters & K. Schmidt: "Animals in the symbolic world of Pre-Pottery Neolithic Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey: a preliminary assessment." Anthropozoologica 39.1 (2004), 179–218: https://web.archive.org/web/20110612061638/http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/front/medias/publication/10613_Peters.pdf. * K. Schmidt: ''Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger''. Verlag C.H. Beck, München 2006, . * K. Schmidt, "Göbekli Tepe. Eine Beschreibung der wichtigsten Befunde erstellt nach den Arbeiten der Grabungsteams der Jahre 1995–2007", in K. Schmidt (ed.), ''Erste Tempel—Frühe Siedlungen. 12000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur, Ausgrabungen und Forschungen zwischen Donau und Euphrat'', (Oldenburg 2009): 187–233. * K. Schmidt, "Göbekli Tepe—the Stone Age Sanctuaries: New results of ongoing excavations with a special focus on sculptures and high reliefs," Documenta Praehistorica XXXVII (2010), 239–256: https://web.archive.org/web/20120131114925/http://arheologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/authors37/37_21.pdf

References

External links

*
Homepage at the DAI

Excavation projects
with the

Interview with Klaus Schmidt on findings at Göbekli Tepe
in the Eurasian Magazine {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Klaus 1953 births 2014 deaths 20th-century German archaeologists 21st-century German archaeologists Archaeologists from Bavaria Heidelberg University alumni People from Ansbach (district) University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Academic staff of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg German Archaeological Institute German prehistorians Göbekli Tepe