Dr Sarah Inskip

Osteoarchaeologist Dr Sarah Inskip is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History. Her research focuses on revealing the impact of tobacco on the health of Western Europeans from 1600-1900. Dr Inskip integrates skeletal evidence obtained from archaeological human skeletal remains with historical and modern health narratives. By utilising modern research techniques she is able to reveal new insights into archaeological questions. Her research interests also include human biology and genetics, with a strong interest in the history and evolution of Hansen's Disease – also known as leprosy - and other infectious diseases. 

Current and recent projects:

• After the Plague: Health and History in Medieval Cambridge
• Tobacco, Health and History
• Hansen’s Disease in the Past

First, major or senior author journal articles

Elliot E, Thomas R, Inskip S, Cooper A, Kitchener AC, Beckmann K, Meredith A. British Red Squirrels (S.vulgaris) with leprosy develop Skeletal Lesions. In press. Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases.

Davies-Barrett AM, Casna M, Inskip SA. 2025. “A custome lothsome”: Investigating the association between tobacco consumption and respiratory inflammation in two post-medieval English populations (c. CE 1500–1855). PLoS One 20(5): e0324045.

Davies-Barrett AM, Holliday R, Jakubovics NS, Inskip SA. 2025. An ‘Index of Oro-dental Disease’: A holistic method for understanding the impacts of different risk factors on oral health in archaeological populations. International Journal of Paleopathology, 48, 43-56.

Perrone V, Davies-Barrett AM, Migliario M, Randolph-Quinney P, Inskip SA, Schwalbe EC. 2025. Reconstructing smoking history through dental cementum analysis - a preliminary investigation on modern and archaeological teeth. PLoS One 20(5): e0323812. 

Badillo Sanchez D, Davies-Barrett AM, Serrano Ruber M, Jones DJL, Inskip SA. 2024. Archaeometabolomics of human cortical bone identifies changes associated with tobacco consumption.  Science Advances 10: eadn9317.

Dittmar J, Inskip SA et al. 2024. Health inequality in medieval Cambridge, 1200-1500 CE. American Journal of Biological Anthropology. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 185: e24993.

Kaul H, van Helden DP, Levine D, Guiry E, Darko N, King CR, Hussain Z, Janardhanan MN, Inskip S. 2024. Practical guidelines to enabling interdisciplinarity. EMBO Reports 25: 2832-2836.

Urban C, Blom AA, Avanzi C, Walker/Meikle, Warren AK, White-Iribhogbe K, Turle R, Marter P, Dawson-Hobbis, Roffey S, Inskip SA, Schuenemann VJ. 2024 Ancient Mycobacterium leprae genome reveals medieval English red squirrels as animal leprosy host. Current Biology 34: 10.

Barrett-Davies AM, Casna M, Boyd DA, Inskip SA. 2024. An analysis of interobserver variability in the recording of maxillary sinusitis in human osteoarchaeological remains. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 34: e3293.

Thompson J, Inskip SA, Scheib C, Bates J, Ge X, Griffith S, Wohns AW, Robb J. 2024. Test of the lateral angle method of sex determination on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval archaeological populations with genetically determined sex. Archaeometry 66: 445-457.

Badillo Sanchez DA, Guellil M, Jones DL, Inskip SA and Scheib CL. 2023. Human archaeological dentin as source of polar and less polar metabolites for untargeted metabolomic research: the case of Yersinia pestis. Metabolites 24: 588.

Inskip SA, Scheib C, Kivisild T, Cessford C, Wohns AW, Rose A, O’Connell T, Dittmar J, Mitchell P, Stock J, Mulder B and Robb JE. 2023. Pathways to the Hospital: Collective Osteobiographies, Medieval Poverty and Medieval Charity. Antiquity 97: 1581-1597.

Badillo-Sanchez D, Serrano Ruber M, Davies-Barrett A, Jones DJL, Hansen M and Inskip S. 2023. Metabolomics in archaeological science: A review of their advances and present requirements. Science Advances 9: eadh0485.

*Badillo Sanchez D, Serrano Ruber M, Davies Barrett A, Jones D, Inskip SA. 2023. Botanical collections as an opportunity to explore nature through the time: An untargeted metabolomic study in historical and modern Nicotiana leaves. Journal of Archaeological Science 153: 105769.

Inskip SA, Muir A. 2023. Material encounters: The alternative use of clay tobacco pipes in England and Wales, c. 1600-1900. Historical Journal 96:156:173.

Inskip SA, Zachary L, Serrano Ruber M, and Hoogland M. 2023. The impact of pipe smoking on Dutch dental health. An archaeological perspective. Post Medieval Archaeology 57: 94-107.

Badillo Sanchez D, Serrano Ruber M, Davies Barrett A, Hansen M, Jones D, Sandu JK, Inskip SA. 2023. Examination of human osteoarchaeological remains as a feasible source of polar and apolar metabolites to study past conditions. Scientific Reports 13: 696.

Velsko I, Semerau L, Inskip SA et al. 2022. Ancient dental calculus preserves signatures of biofilm succession and inter-individual variation independent of dental pathology. PNAS Nexus 1: 148

Pfrengle, S., Neukamm, J., Guellil, M. … Inskip SA and Schuenemann VJ. 2021. Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes. BMC Biology 19: 220.

Urban C, Inskip SA, Schuenemann VJ. 2021. One Health approaches to trace Mycobacterium leprae’s zoonotic potential through time. Frontiers in Microbiology 12: Oct 2021.

Inskip SA, Scheib C, Kivisild T, Cessford C, Wohns AW, and Robb JE.  2019. Evaluating Macroscopic Sex Estimation Methods using Genetically Sexed Archaeological Material: The Medieval Skeletal Collection from St John’s Divinity School, Cambridge. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 168:340-351.

Inskip SA. Carroll G, Lopez O, and Waters-Rist A. 2019. Diet and food strategies in a southern al-Andalusian urban environment during Caliphal period, Écija, Sevilla. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11: 3857–3874.

Inskip SA, Constantinescu M, Brinkman A, Hoogland ML and Sofaer J. 2018. Testing the Accuracy of Basal Occipital Measurements and their Discriminant Functions for Predicting Sex Using Four Documented Early Modern European Collections. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 10: 675–683.

Inskip SA, Taylor GM, Anderson S, and Stewart G. 2017. Leprosy in Pre-Norman Suffolk: Biomolecular and Geochemical Analysis of the Woman from Hoxne. Journal of Medical Microbiology 66:1640-1649.

Inskip SA, Taylor GM, Zakrzewski SR, Mays SA, Pike AWG, Llewellyn G, Williams CM, Lee O Y-C, Wu HHT, Minnikin DE, Besra GS, and Stewart GR. 2015. Osteological, Biomolecular and Geochemical Examination of an Early Anglo-Saxon Case of Lepromatous Leprosy. PLoS One 10: e0124282. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124282.

Inskip SA. 2013. Islam in Iberia or Iberian Islam?  Religious and social factors in the development of religious identities. Post Classical Archaeologies 3: 63-93.

Contributing Author (by date)

Rose AR, Robb JE, Cessford C, Inskip SA, Price M, O’Connell TC. accepted. Detecting social differences in diet in Medieval towns: isotopic evidence from Cambridge, England c. AD 940–1538. 2026. Antiquity.

Guellil et al. 2026. 2500 Years of Human Betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B Evolution Revealed by Ancient DNA. Science Advances, 12 (1): eadx5460.

Scheib C, Hui R, Rose AK, D’Atanasio E, Inskip SA et al. 2024. Low genetic impact of the Roman occupation of Britain in rural communities. Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Hui R, Scheib C, D’Atansio, Inskip SA et al. 2024. Genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death. Science Advances 10: eadi5903

Cessford C, Scheib CL, Guellil M, Keller M, Alexander C, Inskip SA and Robb E. 2022. Beyond Plague Pits: Using Genetics to Identify Responses to Plague in Medieval Cambridgeshire. European Journal of Archaeology 24: 496-518.

Guellil M, Keller M, Dittmar JM, Inskip SA, Cessford C, Solnik A, Kivisild T, Metspalu M, Robb JE, Scheib CL. 2022. An invasive Haemophilus influenzae serotype b infection in an Anglo-Saxon Plague victim. Genome Biology 23: 22.

Mitchell PD, Dittmar JM, Mulder B, Inskip SA, Littlewood A, Cessford C, Robb J. 2022. Assessing the relative benefits of imaging with plain radiographs and microCT scanning to diagnose cancer in past populations. International Journal of Palaeopathology 36: 24-29.  

Guellili M, van Dorp L, Inskip SA, et al… 2022. Ancient herpes simplex 1 genomes reveal recent viral structure in Eurasia. Science Advances. 29: eabo4435

Wang T, Cessford C, Dittmar JM, Inskip S, Jones PM, Mitchell PD. 2022. Intestinal parasite infection in the Augustinian friars and general population of medieval Cambridge UK. International Journal of Palaeopathology.

Dittmar JM, Mitchell PD, Cessford C, Inskip SA & Robb, JE. 2021. Fancy shoes and painful feet: Hallux valgus and fracture risk in medieval Cambridge, England. International Journal of Paleopathology 35: 90-100.

Dittmar JM, Mitchell PD, Cessford C, Inskip SA, & Robb, JE. 2021. Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 175: 626–645.

Mitchell PD, Dittmar JM, Mulder B, Inskip S, Littlewood A, Cessford C, & Robb JE. 2021. The prevalence of cancer in Britain before industrialization. Cancer 127: 3054–3059.

Robb J, Cessford C, Dittmar J, Inskip SA, & Mitchell PD. 2021. The greatest health problem of the Middle Ages? Estimating the burden of disease in medieval England. International journal of paleopathology, 34, 101–112.

Lightfoot E, Pomeroy E, Grant J, O’Connell TC, le Roux P, Inskip S, Benady S, Finlayson C, Finlayson G and Lane K. 2020. Sea, Sickness and Cautionary Tales: A multi-isotope study from a post-Medieval hospital at the city-port of Gibraltar (AD 1462–1704). 2020. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12: 273.

Mulder B, Stock JT, Saers JPP, Inskip SA, Cessford C, Robb JE. 2020. Intrapopulation variation in lower limb trabecular architecture. American Journal Physical Anthropology 173: 112-129.

Majander K, Pfrengle S, Kocher A, Neukamm J, du Plessis L, Pla-Díaz M, Arora N, Akgül G, Salo K, Schats R, Inskip S, et al. 2020. Ancient Bacterial Genomes Reveal a High Diversity of Treponema pallidum Strains in Early Modern Europe. Curr Biol. 2020 Aug 7: S0960-9822(20)31083-6.

Spyrou M, Keller M, Tukhbatova RI Scheib CL, Nelson EA, Valtueña AA, Neumann GU, Walker D, Alterauge A, Carty N, Cessford C, Fetz H, Gourvennec  M, Hartle  R, Henderson M, von Heyking K, Inskip SA,  Kacki S, Key FM, Knox EL, Later C, Maheshwari-Aplin P, Peters J, Robb JE, Schreiber S, Kivisild T, Castex D, Lösch S, Harbeck M, Herbig A, Bos KI and Krause J. 2019. A phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through the analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes. Nature Communications 10, Article number: 4470

Robb JE, Inskip SA, Scheib C, Kivisild T, Cessford C, Wohns AW, Rose A, O’Connell T, Dittmar J, Mitchell P, Stock J and Mulder B. 2019. Osteobiography: the history of the body as real bottom-line history. Bioarchaeology International 3:16-31.

Keller M, Spyrou MA, Scheib CA, Neumann GU, Kröpelin A, Haas-Gebhard B, Päffgen B, Haberstroh J, Lacomba AR, Raynaud C, Cessford C, Durand R, Stadler P, Nägele K, Bates JS, Trautmann B, Inskip SA, Peters J, Robb JE, Kivisild T, Castex D, McCormick M, Bos KI, Harbeck M, Herbig A, Krause J. 2019. Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541-750 CE). PNAS 116: 12363-12372.

Scheib C, Hui R, D’Anatasio E, Wohns AW, Inskip SA, Rose A, Cessford C, O’Connell, Robb JE, Evans C, Pattern R, and Kivisild T. 2019. East Anglian Early Neolithic Monument burial linked to contemporary Megaliths. Annals of Human Biology 43:145-149.

Carroll GMC, Inskip SA and Waters-Rist A. 2018. Pathophysiological Stable Isotope Fractionation: Assessing the Impact of Anaemia on Enamel Apatite δ18O and δ13C Values and Bone Collagen δ15N and δ13C Values. Bioarchaeology International 2:117-146.

Blom A, Inskip S, Baesten W and Hoogland M. 2018.  Testing the accuracy of the clavicle ageing method on a Dutch post medieval collection. Archaeometry 60: 1391-1402.

Schuenemann VJ, Avanzi C, Seitz A, Krause-Kyora B, Herbig A, Benjak A, Inskip S, Boldsen J, Taylor GM, Singh P, Mays S, Donoghue HD, Zakrzewski S, Nieselt K, Cole ST, and Krause J. 2018. Genome wide spread study on European Leprosy. PloS Pathogens 14: e1006997.

Palmer JLA, Quintelier K, Inskip S and Waters-Rist A. 2018. A comparison of two methods for recording entheseal change on a post-medieval urban skeletal collection from Aalst (Belgium). Archaeometry 61:211-225.

Evans C, Sørensen ML, Allen MJ, Appleby J, Casimiro T, French C, Inskip S, Lima J, Newman R, Richter K and Scaife R. 2017. Finding Alcatrazes and early Luso-African settlement on Santiago Island, Cape Verde. Antiquity 91: e8 1-9.

Carroll GMC, Waters-Rist A and Inskip SA. 2016. Intranasal Papilloma: A Suspected Case of Inverted Schneiderian Papilloma in the Choana of Adult Male from Post-Medieval Europe. International Journal of Palaeopathology 13:53-62.

Upson-Smith T. Atkins R, Blinkhorn P, Chapman A, Chapman P, Deighton K, Hylton T, Inskip S, Lord-Hart W and Timby J. 2016. A Middle to Late Saxon Cemetery at Rothley, The Grange. Trans. Leicestershire Archaeology and History Society 90:103-139.

Carroll G, Waters-Rist A and Inskip SA. 2015. Assessing the impact of anaemia on stable isotope ratios using the medieval population of Écija, Spain. Journal of Palaeopathology 25: 16.

Raven MJ, Weiss L, Aston BG, Inskip S and Warner N. 2015. Preliminary report on the Leiden-Turin Excavations at Saqqara, Season 2015: the tomb of an anonymous official (tomb x) and its surroundings. Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 45: 2-17.

Yates A, Chapman A, Inskip S and Sheridan A. 2012. Crouched Inhumation burials at Norton Subcourse Quarry, Norfolk. The Proceedings of Prehistoric Society (PAST) 70:2-3.

Rowland J, Inskip S and Zakrzewski S. 2010. The Ptolemaic-Roman Cemetery at the Quesna Archaeological Area. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 96:31-48.

Books

Inskip SA and Hughes J. (eds). forthcoming. Tobacco Through Time. Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Bloomsbury Press.

Peer Reviewed Book Chapters

Inskip SA (forthcoming). Social Osteology. In Robb J (eds). After the Plague: History and Health in Medieval Cambridge. McDonald Institute Monographs: University of Cambridge.

Davies Barrett A and Inskip SA. 2024. Who smokes anymore? Documentary, archaeological and osteological evidence for tobacco consumption and its relationship to social identity in Industrial England (AD 1700-1850). In: Harvey K and Craig Atkins (eds). Material Bodies. Manchester University Press.

Inskip 2020. In Evans C and Lucas G (eds). Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited. McDonald Institute Monographs.

Inskip SA. 2017. Adherence to Islamic tradition and the formation of Iberian Islam in early medieval al-Andalus. In:  Hausmair B and Jarvis B (eds.). The Archaeology of Rules. Berghahn, Oxford, pp254-272.

Zakrzewski S, Wright S, and Inskip SA. 2017.  Anglo-Saxon concepts of dis/ability: placing disease at Great Chesterford in its wider context. In: Byerns J. (ed.). Embodying Impairment: Towards a Bioarchaeology of Disability. pp269-289.

Inskip SA. 2016. Reading the Islamic Body: Demonstrating the Potential of a Multifaceted Approach for Exploring Early Medieval Iberian Islamic Identity. In: Quirós Castillo JA (ed). Coloquio Demografia, Paleopatología y Desegualidad Social. Vitoria conference 2015. Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Vitoria, pp263-280.

Inskip SA. 2016. Death and life in Al-Andalus: Approaches to Funerary Archaeology and Osteoarchaeology. In: Carvajal JL (ed.). Al-Andalus in History and in Memory. Akkadia Press, pp39-45.

Inskip SA. 2009. The Human Bones. In: Foard-Colby A (ed.) Archaeological trial trench evaluation of land around Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. H18 Spencer’s Park Final report May - June 2008.  Northamptonshire Archaeology Report 08/169: 15-20. Northamptonshire: Northamptonshire City Council.

Glazier D, Whitewright J, Peacock D, Zakrzewski S and Inskip S. 2008. Samidi.  In: Peacock DP and Blue L (eds.). The Eritro-British Expedition to Adulis. Oxford: Oxbow, pp70-72.

Inskip SA. 2008. Great Chesterford: A Catalogue of Burials. In: Brickley M and Smith M (eds.) Proceedings of the 8th BABAO Annual Meeting. British Archaeological Reports (International) Series 1743, Oxford: Archaeopress, pp57-66.

Inskip SA. 2008. Human Bone. In: Carlyle S (ed.).  A Romano-British ‘ladder enclosure’ at Milton Ham, Northampton. Northamptonshire Archaeology Report 08/118. Northamptonshire: Northamptonshire City Council, pp14.

Topics for supervision:

• Osteoarchaeology
• Bioarchaeology
• Health and Disease in Medieval
• Post-Medieval Western Europe
• Hansen’s Disease in the Past

Osteoarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, Health and Disease in Medieval and Post-Medieval Western Europe. Islamic Iberia. Infectious disease in the past.