Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser facts for kids

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser (born June 25, 1965) is a German archaeologist. She studies how early humans lived. She is a professor at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany. She also leads the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum. This museum focuses on how humans have changed over time.

Becoming an Archaeologist

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser studied many subjects in Germany. These included prehistory (the time before written records) and protohistory (the time when writing was just starting). She also learned about geology (Earth's rocks) and paleontology (ancient life). In 1992, she earned her doctorate degree from Cologne University.

She started working as a researcher at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum. From 1996 to 2003, she visited the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. She also taught at universities in Cologne, Basel (Switzerland), and Leiden (The Netherlands). In 2003, she became a full professor at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. The same year, she became the director of the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre.

Exploring Ancient Human Life

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser's main work is understanding how early humans, called hominins, lived during the Palaeolithic (Stone Age). This was a very long time ago. She looks at how they found and used food. She also studies how this affected their social groups and how they used the land.

She is well-known for her work on how ancient people in Europe and the Middle East got their food. This is called zooarchaeology, which is the study of animal bones from archaeological sites. Her research showed that early humans hunted animals as far back as 1.4 million years ago. She also found that they used many different ways to get food.

Her work helps us understand how archaeological sites are formed. This includes studying taphonomy, which is how things decay and become fossils. She has worked at several important sites. These include Kärlich-Seeufer in Germany, which is 400,000 years old. She also worked at the 1.4-million-year-old site of ‘Ubeidiya in Israel.

Selected Books

Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser has written many books about her research. Some of her books explore how early humans used space and hunted animals. She has also written about the history of humans in Central Europe.