Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Claus von Carnap Bornheim. Photo: Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen

For more than two decades, he decisively shaped archaeological research as well as communication about archaeology in Schleswig-Holstein and far beyond. Now Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Claus von Carnap-Bornheim, Executive Director of the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Foundation and founding member of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, began his well-deserved retirement on October 1. Numerous politicians, including Schleswig-Holstein's Minister-President Daniel Günther and Minister of Education, Science, Research and Culture Karin Prien, as well as long-time companions, friends of the scientist and museum manager, partners of the state museums, colleagues from all over Germany, family members and employees celebrated him and bid him farewell during a ceremony in Schleswig. 

"Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Claus von Carnap-Bornheim has not only achieved a lot for the state museums but he also provided important impulses to research at Kiel University," emphasises Johannes Müller, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology of Kiel University and speaker of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS. 

Claus von Carnap-Bornheim played a crucial role in the successful research application for the Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes‘, which was funded at Kiel University in 2007 as part of the Excellence Initiative of Germany’s Federal Government. In 2019, the Cluster of Excellence ‘ROOTS - Social, Environmental, and Cultural Connectivity in Past Societies‘ emerged from it, in which Claus von Carnap-Bornheim has also been a very active member. The Center for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), which he founded in 2008, is one of the important non-university partners within the ROOTS scientific research family. 

"In addition to his outstanding achievements as a scientist and science manager, Claus von Carnap-Borneheim has also decidedly advanced the transfer of archaeological knowledge from science to society with the State Museum of Archaeology. We continue to benefit from these visions in our current projects," underlines Johannes Müller. For example, the ROOTS project "Schenefeld gräbt aus," the first community test pit excavation of its kind in Germany, goes back to an initiative of Claus von Carnap-Bornheim. 

"We thank him for the excellent cooperation and wish him all the best for his retirement," Johannes Müller summarises.

Press release of the State Museum of Archaeology