Mark Nesbitt

Career
 

1999- Ethnobotanist, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (see Kew website) 1998-99 Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Wainwright Fund, Oxford University 1997-98 Post-doctoral Research Fellow, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara 1994-97 Ph.D. student and research assistant, Institute of Archaeology, UCL. NERC-fundedproject on grass seed identification. Supervisor: Prof. Gordon Hillman. 1990-94 Freelance archaeobotanist. Sites included Saar (Bahrain), Merv (Turkmenistan), Hallan Çemi and Kaman Kalehöyük (Turkey). 1985-90 Research Fellow, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara 1983-84 M.Sc. in Bioarchaeology, Institute of Archaeology (now part of UCL) 1980-83 B.Sc. in Agricultural Botany, University of Reading

Excavations

Work in progress

Turkey

Aşvan: Multi-period excavations in eastern Turkey by David French, 1969-74.

Dilkaya: Early Bronze Age site on Lake Van. Results from one month of flotation in 1987.

Gordion: Iron-Age samples from Rodney Young’s 1960s excavations.

Kuruçay: Late Chalcolithic site in western Turkey with large deposit of Lathyrus sativus.

Completed/transferred

Hallan Çemi and Demirköy (1990-2000): Excavation by Michael Rosenberg of an early Aceramic Neolithic village. Material passed to Manon Savard, who completed a Ph.D. on it in 2005.

Kaman-Kalehöyük, Turkey (1991-1993): flotation recovered very rich samples from the Late Bronze Age to Ottoman periods. Passed to Andy Fairbairn, Queensland University.

Höyücek (1989): Pottery Neolithic plant remains from burnt level. Published with Daniele Martinoli.

Tille Höyük (1985-90): manuscript submitted 1990; revised 2006 for forthcoming report on Iron Age levels.

Iraq

Qermez Dere and M’lefaat, northern Iraq (1987-1990): Aceramic Neolithic sites dating to c. 10,000 uncal BP. Plant remains dominated by wild grasses and pulses. Material passed to Manon Savard, who completed a Ph.D. on it in 2005.

Turkmenistan

Merv (1992-1994): excavation of Sasanian levels at a major Silk Road city, directed by Georgina Herrmann, UCL.  Analysis of the first three-year phase is now complete and being prepared for publication with my collaborators, Sheila Boardman (seeds) and Rowena Gale (charcoal). Ph.D. funding at Sheffield has been obtained for Boardman to continue work on the 1995-97 samples.

Bahrain

Saar (1991-1993): first large-scale flotation of Dilmun period plant remains.
M’lefaat (S.K. Kozlowski, Warsaw), Qermez Dere, Iraq (1987-1990, Trevor Watkins, Edinburgh) and Hallan Çemi, Turkey (1991-1994, Michael Rosenberg, Delaware): very large-scale flotation at a group of three Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic settlements in the northern Fertile Crescent.

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