Akinbowale Akintayo
Research Fellow

Profile

Biography

Akinbowale received a BSc in Archaeology/Geography (Combined Honours) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2010 and completed an MSc in Environmental Archaeology in 2014 from the same institution. He also studied for an MSc in Environmental Management at Pan African University, Institute of Life and Earth Sciences, Nigeria in 2015. In 2019, he was awarded an International Doctorate in Quaternary and Prehistory degree by Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, Spain and Universita degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy, having been awarded the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Programme Scholarship between 2016 and 2019. His PhD research on landscape analyses and mobility dynamics of raw materials procurement strategies in Calerizo de Cáceres Spain employed Geographic Information System and landscape modelling techniques to understand human occupation of this area of southwestern Iberian Peninsula during Middle Pleistocene.

Akinbowale joined the Department of Archaeology in April 2021 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the ‘MAEASaM - Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments’ Project. The project aims to identify archaeological sites and monuments in selected African countries using GIS, remote sensing, desk-based research, and archaeological surveys to create digital records of sites and monuments.

In October 2024, Akinbowale switched roles to start a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. His research aims to analyse landscape changes at Sukur Cultural Landscape, northern Nigeria over the last twenty-five years. His interdisciplinary work, drawing on archaeology, geography, heritage management, Geographic Information System, and remote sensing analyses, will help to assess recent threats to the sustainability of Sukur World Heritage Site. Using state-of-the-art GIS and remote sensing technologies, combined with field observation and landscape modelling, his work will examine negative impacts on Sukur Cultural Landscape of recent vandalism and Climate Change.

Research

Overview

Akinbowale is a landscape archaeologist specialising in Geographic Information System and remote sensing applications in archaeology. His areas of interest include environmental archaeology, spatial archaeology, GIS and remote sensing applications in archaeology and heritage management. Since 2008, he has been involved in several archaeological projects (field surveys, mapping and excavations) in Nigeria, Tanzania, Spain and Italy using remote sensing techniques and geospatial techniques for landscape analyses, spatial modelling and cultural heritage management.

Click here for more information about his current research.