Gudrun Corvinus

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Gudrun Corvinus (born 14th Dec 1931, d. 1st Jan 2006) was a German archaeologist of the Nepal Research Centre in Kathmandu.

Her father had a PhD in agriculture and her mother was a professor of economics. She completed her studies in geology, paleontology and prehistory at the University of Tübingen.

She was a member of the Afar expedition in Ethiopia which discovered the famous skeleton called "Lucy". While working in the Namibian desert, she discovered animal fossils from the Miocene period. Corvinus moved to Nepal in 1984 and explored the region, specifically the Dang Deokhuri District, Dun valley, and Siwalik Hills.

See also: Institute for Prehistory, Erlangen University; German Research Foundation/German Research Council (DFG); Dr. Ludwig Reisch; German Archaeological Society; University of Pune; Second World War; Bonn

[edit] Death

Returning from Nepal to settle down in Pune, India, where she had many old friends and owned estate, in January 2006 Dr Corvinus was found stabbed and beheaded in her apartment. The murderer, an estate agent named Iqbal Mohammad Sheikh who had helped her sell one of her flats, was identified and arrested by local police the very next day. He had visited Corvinus on the 1st of January and tried to force her to sign blank papers to gain legal power over her estate and bank accounts. When she refused he stabbed her, then cut off her head and took it with him in a plastic bag. It was later found in Kharadi some 10-12 km away under a bridge.

Friends, colleagues and relatives in Pune as well as Germany and Nepal and other countries, were shocked about this horrific murder. She had just completed her last work about Nepal, and had plans to continue researching with the local Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune.

[edit] Books

1981: A Survey of the Pravara River System in Western Maharashtra, India.
- (Volume 1: The Stratigraphy and Geomorphology of the Pravara River System.)
- By Gudrun Corvinus, Tübingen (Verlag Archaeologica Venatoria) -- ISBN 3-921618-13-4
1983: A Survey of the Pravara River System in Western Maharashtra, India.
- (Volume 2: The Excavations of the Acheulian Site of Chirki-on-Pravara, India.)
- By Gudrun Corvinus, Tübingen (Verlag Archaeologica Venatoria) -- ISBN 3-921618-14-2
2005: Prehistoric Cultures in Nepal from the Early Palaeolithic to the Neolithic and the Quarternary Geology of the Dang-Deokhuri Dun Valleys