24 Facts About Timothy Insoll

Timothy Alexander Insoll was born on 1967 and is a British archaeologist and Africanist and Islamic Studies scholar.

Timothy Insoll is founder and director of the Centre for Islamic Archaeology.

Timothy Insoll's research has focused on the archaeological indicators of Islam, as well as indigenous beliefs associated with concepts such as ancestral veneration and sacrifice.

Timothy Insoll has engaged with STEM approaches throughout his research, and works closely with historical, ethnographic, and epigraphic materials.

Timothy Insoll has particular interests in the archaeological analysis of beads and bead materials.

Timothy Insoll has curated several exhibitions and worked on theoretical approaches to the archaeological study of rituals and religions.

Timothy Insoll has led research projects in Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Bahrain, and completed other field and museum-based projects in Eritrea, India, Pemba Island, and Uganda.

Timothy Insoll went on to work on his PhD at St John's College, University of Cambridge from 1992 to 1995.

Timothy Insoll completed field research in Pemba Island, Gao and Timbuktu, Rakai, the Dahlak Islands, Khambhat, Muharraq and Bilad al-Qadim, the Tong Hills and Yikpabongo, and Harar and Harlaa, Ethiopia.

From 1992 to 1995 Timothy Insoll completed his PhD on trans-Saharan trade and Islamisation in the city of Gao and its surrounding region in eastern Mali, research that was continued in 1996 as part of a post-doctoral fellowship.

Also, in the 1990s Timothy Insoll completed a series of smaller research projects to assess Islamic archaeological remains in varied parts of sub-Saharan Africa which contributed to a major monograph, The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In 1998, Timothy Insoll commenced the first modern excavations in Timbuktu, in Mali.

In 2001 Timothy Insoll began his longest running research mission, the Early Islamic Bahrain project, sponsored by Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Between 2004 and 2013, and contiguous with the Early Islamic Bahrain project, Timothy Insoll directed research examining the archaeology of indigenous African religions in Northern Ghana, with a particular focus on the Talensi of the Tong Hills, and subsequently the figurines of Koma Land.

The use of scientific investigative techniques was expanded in the second phase of the research undertaken by Timothy Insoll to help in interpreting the meaning and role of enigmatic ceramic human and animal figurines and the mound contexts they were found during University of Ghana excavations directed by Prof.

Between 2016 and 2022, Timothy Insoll was Principal Investigator on a European Research Council Advanced Grant funded project, Becoming Muslim: Conversion to Islam and Islamisation in Eastern Ethiopia.

Timothy Insoll was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2001, a Fellow of the British Academy in 2023, and of the Royal Asiatic Society, and is the Honorary Archaeological Advisor to the Court of the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain, and an Honorary Lecturer at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

Timothy Insoll is currently on the editorial boards of the Annales d'Ethiopie, Antiquity, Ghana Social Science Journal, Journal of Islamic Archaeology, Journal of African Archaeology, Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, Material Religion, and Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean.

Timothy Insoll has developed partnerships with various institutions in Africa, the Middle East and India, notably the Institut des Science Humaines, the University of Ghana and Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, MS University, Vadodara, the Authority for Research and Cultural Heritage and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities.

Timothy Insoll co-curated the sub-Saharan Africa section, with Dr Venetia Porter, of Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam, for which he collected Hajj artefacts in Mali.

In 2017 Timothy Insoll curated the permanent exhibition in the visitor centre at the Al-Khamis Mosque, Bahrain.

In June 2018 Timothy Insoll co-organised the conference Representing Africa in British Museums, in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, with Tony Eccles, exploring the themes of cultural representation, the construction of time, and historical ethnography, and in January 2020 organised the inaugural Indian Ocean World Archaeology conference at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

Timothy Insoll co-organised the second IOW-Arch conference, again in Exeter, in December 2022.

Timothy Insoll has developed the successful widening participation masterclasses, Pots and Mosques: Explorations in Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter and, The World in Manchester.