Klaus Schmidt (archaeologist)

Klaus Schmidt (11 December 1953 – 20 July 2014) was a German archaeologist and pre-historian who led the excavations at Göbekli Tepe from 1996 to 2014.

Klaus Schmidt
Klaus Schmidt in 2014 at the Monumento Tradefair in Salzburg
Born	(1953-12-11)11 December 1953 Feuchtwangen, West Germany (now Germany)
Died	20 July 2014(2014-07-20) (aged 60) Ückeritz, Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Heidelberg University, University of Erlangen
Known for	Göbekli Tepe
Scientific career
Fields	Archaeologist

Klaus Schmidt studied pre- and protohistory, as well as classical archaeology and geology at the universities of Erlangen and Heidelberg. He completed his doctorate in 1983 at the Heidelberg university under the direction of Harald Hauptmann. He received a travel stipend from the German Archaeological Institute from 1984 to 1986. From 1986 to 1995, he received a research stipend from the German Research Foundation and 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 Göbekli Tepe in Southeast Turkey. He received his habilitation in 1999 from the University of Erlangen and in 2000 became Privatdozent in Pre- and Proto-history at the Institute for Pre- and Proto-history of the University of Erlangen. In 2007, he became adjunct professor at the University of Erlangen.

Starting 2001, he became the referent in prehistoric archaeology of the Oriental division of the German Archaeological Institute, and from 2007 was corresponding member of the Institute.[1]

In 1995, Schmidt purchased a house in nearby Urfa, which became his base of operations.[2] His team of archaeologists typically excavated the site of Göbekli Tepe during two months in the spring and two months in the fall. In a 2011 interview, Schmidt estimated that roughly five percent of the site had been excavated.[3]

Klaus Schmidt was married to Turkish archaeologist Çiğdem Köksal-Schmidt.[4] He died of a heart attack while swimming in Germany on 20 July 2014.[5][3] Archaeologists intend to continue the excavations at Göbekli Tepe despite Schmidt's death.[6][7]