Gudrun Corvinus

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Gudrun Corvinus (born December 14, 1931 in Stettin , died January 1, 2006 in Pune , Maharashtra , India ) was a German geologist, paleontologist and prehistoric scientist . Her scientific work consisted of research work in India, Ethiopia , Namibia and Nepal . She is considered a pioneer in the field of paleoanthropology in India and Nepal.

education

Gudrun Corvinus studied at the Universities of Bonn and Tübingen , where she received her doctorate in 1961. In her doctoral thesis , she focused on ammonites from the Jurassic Period in France. However, her main interests were in geology , vertebrate paleontology, and paleolithic archeology . During her initial work, it was not uncommon for her to do field studies on her own.

Research work

India

1964 examined the Corvinus Pravara - river system in Nevasa area of Maharashtra (transition between the old and Middle Palaeolithic) in an independent, multidisciplinary project (research grant from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi). According to a survey proposed by Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia (1908-1989) on the geomorphology of the entire Pravara Valley, Corvinus came across a manufacturing site of the Acheuléen near Chirki on the Pravara, two miles downstream from Nevasa. After receiving funding from the Wenner Gren Foundation and the German Research Foundation , Corvinus decided to carry out the excavation in the three winter seasons from 1967 to 1969. This led to the discovery of the rich, early artefact assemblage of the Acheuléen in a fine-grained context in the channels of the Chirki area. In addition, a large number of well-preserved fossil pieces of wood and tree trunks were found in the alluvium.

In 1981 and 1983 Corvinus published two classic monographs on this, the first publications on the geology and archeology of a site in the Acheuléen on the Indian subcontinent.

Ethiopia

Gudrun Corvinus was a member of the International Afar Research Expedition, the team of paleoanthropologists that discovered Lucy ( Australopithecus afarensis ) in Hadar , Ethiopia , during the early 1970s .

In 1975/76 she discovered Paleolithic sites in Ethiopia that are known to be some of the oldest in the world, which encouraged the rapid progress of archaeological work in Ethiopia. The unstable political situation in Ethiopia as well as problems with competing colleagues prevented her from continuing her research.

Namibia

During the 1970s, Gudrun Corvinus carried out an inventory of archaeological and paleontological materials in the southwestern part of Namibia . She was invited to conduct geoarchaeological surveys of diamond-bearing sediments along the coastal areas for the De Beers Diamond Company. The discovery of a rich Miocene fossil source and numerous Pleistocene Stone Age sites was made possible through their field research in Africa.

Nepal

In 1985 Gudrun Cornivus began exploring the foothills of the Siwalik Hills in western Nepal . In a period of twelve years (1988–2006) she made discoveries of numerous Paleolithic sites and rich collections of fauna and flora ranging from the Miocene to the Pleistocene . In the Dun Valleys of the Dang Deokhuri District in the Siwaliks and an area on the Rato River in eastern Nepal, she discovered an unexpected wealth of settlement sites from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic. Evidence of human use of hand axes and human settlement could be dated at least to the late Middle Pleistocene . When they discovered the settlement areas of the Acheuléen, it turned out to be particularly important that the early South Asian hominini were already able to cross the vast floodplains of the Indus and Ganges .

Private life and death

Corvinus has been interested in music, foreign cultures and travel since her youth, which took her to India and China at an early age.

During her early thirty years in Pune, Corvinus had married the Indian scientist Anand Karve; the couple later divorced. After finishing her work in Nepal, Corvinus returned to India to live in Pune. She had previous friends and colleagues there, and was already in touch with the local Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute through new research.

After she had not been seen since December 30, 2005, did not respond to phone calls and had her door locked when she visited her apartment in Koregaon Park, where she lived alone, acquaintances called the police on January 7, 2006. The stabbed and decapitated body of Gudrun Corvinus was discovered in the apartment. Her head was found under a bridge in Kharadi, a suburb 12 km away.

After just a few hours, the police were able to arrest the real estate agent Iqlaque Fakir Mohammed, who had a business relationship with Corvinus. Her personal items were found with him. At the trial he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutor Neelima Vartak came to the conclusion that the murder was the result of a refusal by Dr. Corvinus happened to issue a blank power of attorney, and that afterwards an additional property offense occurred.

Publications (selection)

  • Contributions to the stratigraphy and paleontology of Oxford and the lower Unterkimeridge of Mont Crussol / Ardèche in comparison with southern Germany . Dissertation University of Tübingen 1961
  • A Survey of the Pravara River System in Western Maharashtra, India , Volume 1: The Stratigraphy and Geomorphology of the Pravara River System , Verlag Archaeologica Venatoria, Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-921618-13-4
  • A Survey of the Pravara River System in Western Maharashtra, India , Volume 2: The Excavations of the Acheulian Site of Chirki-on-Pravara, India , Verlag Archaeologica Venatoria, Tübingen 1983, ISBN 3-921618-14-2
  • The raised beaches of the West Coast of South West Africa, Namibia. An interpretation of their archaeological and palaeontological data (= research on general and comparative archeology, Volume 5). Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-30142-8
  • Prehistoric Occupation Sites in Dang-Deokhuri Valleys of Western Nepal , in Man and Environment , Vol. 19, 1994, pp. 73-89
  • (posthumous): Prehistoric Cultures in Nepal From the Early Palaeolithic to the Neolithic and the Quaternary Geology of the Dang Deokhuri Dun Valleys , Volume 1 and 2, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, New Delhi, India (Exclusively distributed by Aryan Books International) 2007, ISBN 9783447055819

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Mention of the determination of the day of death in the autopsy report: A murder that killed paradise , Pune Mirror, January 17, 2009; accessed on February 6, 2017.
  2. ^ A b G. Corvinus: Prehistoric exploration at Hadar, Ethiopia . In: Nature . 261, No. 5561, June 1, 1976, pp. 571-572. bibcode : 1976Natur.261..571C . doi : 10.1038 / 261571a0 .
  3. ^ A b c Parth R. Chauhan, Rajeev Patnaik: Gudrun Corvinus (1932-2006) —Pioneering paleoanthropologist . In: Quaternary International . 192, No. 1, December 1, 2008, pp. 1-5. doi : 10.1016 / j.quaint.2007.11.023 .
  4. ↑ Hasmukhlal Dhirajlal Sankalia, Shantaram Bhalchandra Deo, Madhukar Keshav Dhavalikar: Studies in Indian Archeology: Professor HD Sankalia Felicitation Volume ( en ). Popular Prakashan, January 1, 1985, ISBN 9780861320882 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Parth R. Chauhan, Rajeev Patnaik: Gudrun Corvinus (1932-2006) —Pioneering paleoanthropologist . In: Quaternary International . 192, No. 1, December 1, 2008, ISSN  1040-6182 , pp. 1-5. doi : 10.1016 / j.quaint.2007.11.023 .
  6. ↑ S. Semaw, P. Renne, JWK Harris, CS Feibel, RL Bernor, N. Fesseha, K. Mowbray: 2.5-million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia . In: Nature . 385, No. 6614, Jan. 23, 1997, pp. 333-336. doi : 10.1038 / 385333a0 . PMID 9002516 .
  7. ↑ a b c Realtor gets life term for murder of German archaeologist , Times of India , January 16, 2009; accessed on February 6, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Corvinus, Gudrun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist, paleontologist and prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 2006
Place of death Pune , Maharashtra , India