Klaus Schmidt

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

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.

Schmidt purchased a house in nearby Urfa, which became his base of operations.

His team of archaeologists typically excavated the site of Göbekli Tepe during two months in the spring and two months in the fall.

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.

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.

Also in 2007, he became adjunct professor at the University of Erlangen.

In a 2011 interview, Schmidt estimated that roughly five percent of the site had been excavated.

Klaus Schmidt was married to Turkish archaeologist Çiğdem Köksal-Schmidt.

He died of a heart attack while swimming in Germany on 20 July 2014.