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.[1] 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 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 in 2001, he became the referent in prehistoric archaeology of the Oriental division of the German Archaeological Institute, and from 2007 was a corresponding member of the institute.[2] 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.[3]
Personal life
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]
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, ISSN0342-118X
K. Schmidt, 2000a = Göbekli Tepe and the rock art of the Near East, TÜBA-AR 3 (2000): 1–14.
K. Schmidt: Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. Das rätselhafte Heiligtum der Steinzeitjäger. Verlag C.H. Beck, München 2006, ISBN3-406-53500-3.
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.
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