Timothy Alexander Insoll

Background

Timothy Insoll was born on January 12, 1967, in London, United Kingdom.

Education

Insoll graduated with honors from the University of Sheffield in 1992, receiving a Bachelor of Arts. He got his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 1996.

Career

Professor Timothy Insoll is an archaeologist and Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic archaeology at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. He is the founding Director of the Centre for Islamic Archaeology in the IAIS. He joined the IAIS in 2016 having previously taught in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Manchester (1999-2016). Prior to this, he was a Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Cambridge (1995-1998).

At Manchester, Timothy Insoll taught the courses Introduction to African Archaeology, Research Issues in African Archaeology, Islamic Archaeology, and the Archaeology of Rituals and Religions, and team-taught and directed Introduction to World Archaeology, and Critical Themes in World Archaeology.

At the University of Exeter, he teaches the courses, Introduction to Islamic Archaeology, and Regions and Empires in Islamic Archaeology, and Ethnography of the Middle East, as well as contributing to various other modules.

He is also the Honorary Archaeological Advisor to the Court of the Crown Prince of Bahrain (since 2001), and Honorary Lecturer, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Previously, he was Honorary Curator of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (2017-2019), Visiting Professor, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management, Jinka University, Ethiopia (2017-2019), and Honorary Academic Curator of African Archaeology at Manchester Museum (2014-2016).

He is the author or editor of 11 monographs, 8 edited books, and 4 special edited journal issues, 107 journal articles and book chapters, 50 other publications and curator or co-curator of 6 exhibitions, and made 4 teaching films.

Currently, he is working on the exhibition for a community museum at the site of Harlan in eastern Ethiopia and on the first display on Islamic history and archaeology in the National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Recently he also curated the exhibition, Remembering the Dead in Bahraini Shia Cemeteries (2018), in the Street Gallery, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. Previously, in 2013 he co-curated the exhibition, Fragmentary Ancestors. Figurines and Archaeology from Koma Land, at Manchester Museum, which transferred as a permanent exhibit to the National Museum, Accra, Ghana.

He is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology, Journal of African Archaeology, Antiquity, Material Religion, Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, and Ghana Social Science Journal. Previously he was on the editorial board of the African Archaeological Review (2000-2012) and joint editor of the series, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology (2006-2011).

He has appeared in various media, particularly in relation to the destruction, protection, and restoration of Islamic heritage in northern Mali, and about his archaeological research in eastern Ethiopia.

Timothy Insoll has 29 years of fieldwork experience in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, having completed field research in, for example, Pemba Island in Tanzania, Gao and Timbuktu in Mali, the Dahlak Islands in Eritrea, Khambhat in India, and Muharraq and Bilad al-Qadim in Bahrain. During the period 2005-2020 he has directed or co-directed 19 research expeditions involving directing 7 seasons of survey and test excavation in Harar and Harlan, eastern Ethiopia (2014-2020), co-directing one of the surveys in south-west Ethiopia, and directing 6 seasons of excavations and surveys in the Tong Hills, northern Ghana (2004-2009), co-directing 2 seasons of funerary inscriptions survey, and directing 3 seasons of archaeological excavation in Bahrain, as well as participating in 2 other research expeditions in Koma Land, Ghana (2010-2011).

Achievements

• Timothy Insoll is a widely recognized archaeologist, who is also an Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic archaeology at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. He has directed or co-directed 19 research expeditions. He was Honorary Curator of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, and Honorary Academic Curator of African Archaeology at Manchester Museum.

Works

More photos

• book

  • An Archaeological Guide to Bahrain

    (Packed full of beautiful illustrations and written in a l...)

    2011
  • The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa

    (This comprehensive study of the impact of Islam in sub-Sa...)

    2003
  • The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion

    (The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Reli...)

    2011
  • Material Explorations in African Archaeology

    (How people engaged with materials such as clay or stone, ...)

    2015
  • The Islamic Funerary Inscriptions of Bahrain, Pre-1317 AH/1900 AD

    (In The Islamic Funerary Inscriptions of Bahrain, Pre-1317...)

    2018
  • Temporalising Anthropology: Archaeology in the Talensi Tong Hills, Northern Ghana

    (This volume contains the results of significant fieldwork...)

    2013
  • The Archaeology of Identities: A Reader

    (The Archaeology of Identities brings together seventeen s...)

    2006
  • The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology

    (Born from the fields of Islamic art and architectural his...)

    2020
  • Archaeology, Ritual, Religion

    (The archaeology of religion is a much-neglected area, yet...)

    2004
  • The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines

    (Figurines dating from prehistory have been found across t...)

    2017
  • Archaeology and World Religion

    (Archaeology and World Religion is important new work, bei...)

    2001
  • The Archaeology of Islam 1999
  • Land Of Enki In The Islamic 2005
  • Current Archaeological Research in Ghana 2008
  • Archaeology: The Conceptual Challenge 2007

Religion

Insoll is a member of the Roman Catholic church.

Views

Timothy's research interests are in later African archaeology (Iron Age) and Global Islamic archaeology.

Membership

Insoll is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Asiatic Society.

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  Society of Antiquaries , United Kingdom

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  Royal Asiatic Society , United Kingdom