Mark Nesbitt

From netting to quivers, basketry in its many forms continues to be an intricate and sustainable expression of human ingenuity. The centuries-old craft of basketmaking and collection of baskets from around the world, from ancient Egypt to the current day, is interwoven with rich and diverse human stories. This account charts the last 200 years of the Kew collection. Weaving Nature takes a holistic and interdisciplinary view of the journey from plant to basket – it explains why certain plants are favoured by makers and shows how raw materials are worked to achieve the desired use. New discoveries in the historic ethnobotanical collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unravels the complex web of empire, trade and exploration that contributed to this vast collection. Rich in stories and images, Weaving Nature offers new ways of appreciating one of humankind’s oldest art forms.

Throughout the world, traditional medical systems continue to impact the lives of many people. These systems vary greatly in their underlying beliefs – but all commonly rely on the consumption of plant matter as a central practice. An Ancient Mesopotamian Herbal is a new, fully illustrated book that explores the uses of flora in traditional medicine and how these botanical roots extend to modern, ‘conventional’ medicinal treatments. Using new research and yet unseen data from modern day Iraq and surrounding areas, and drawing on the expertise of archeo-botanists, scientists and Assyriologists specialising in historic Mesopotamian medicine, An Ancient Mesopotamian Herbal is a ground-breaking reassessment of research on ancient Mesopotamian flora.

Just the Tonic is an accessible yet informative history of tonic water: its connections to the major disease malaria, the cure discovered in the bitter bark of the cinchona tree and its constituent alkaloid quinine. It is a history deeply intertwined with botanical exploration and empire in the Victorian era, and the role of botanical gardens such as Kew.

A collection of frightening stories, including the Civil War ghosts of Gettysburg, spirits at John Brown's tannery, the fiddling ghost of Potter County, hauntings at the Eastern State Penitentiary, the mysterious indelible handprint, and many more.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Keystone State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Authors Mark Nesbitt and Patty A. Wilson shine a light in the dark corners of Pennsylvania and scare those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From apparitions of fires and soldiers struggling in the cold at Valley Forge, to ghostly children stalking dormitories at Gettysburg College, these stories of strange occurrences are sure to send a chill up your spine. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

This volume contains the final publication of the archaeobotanical remains recovered from four sites at the village of Asvan in eastern Turkey, which were excavated between 1968 and 1973 as part of the archaeological rescue project in the Keban Dam region. An extensive programme of archaeobotanical research involved detailed study of the modern flora, the observation and recording of pre-mechanised agricultural practices and large-scale recovery of ancient botanical samples by water sieving. The report traces the evolution of cultivation in the region from the Chalcolithic to the Medieval period, charting the dominance of emmer and hulled barley in the Chalcolithic period, the emergence of free-threshing wheats in the Early Bronze Age and the introduction of irrigated summer crops, especially millet, by the Hellenistic period. Detailed attention is also given to the assemblage of weed seeds as proxy evidence for environmental conditions and climate change from around 4000 BC to the present day.