Central Eurasian Paleoethnobotany

Archaeobotany on the Silk Road

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    • Dzhungar Mountains, Kazakhstan
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    • Spring 2019 – Food Security in Flux
    • Spring 2019 – International Application of Archaeological Science
    • Spring 2018 – International Application of Archaeological Science
    • Fall 2017 – Telescopic and Microscopic Visions of Central Asian Prehistory
    • Spring 2015 – Introduction and Intensification of Agriculture in Central Eurasia
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Recent Publications

  • A Note About My Publications
  • Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat
  • Grazing Animals Drove Domestication in Grain Crops
  • Bronze and Iron Age urbanization in Turkmenistan: Preliminary results from the excavation of Togolok 1 on the Murghab alluvial fan
  • The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs

Archives

Publication Types

  • Articles (33)
    • Book Reviews (5)
    • Thesis Writings (2)
  • Book Chapters (6)
  • Books (1)
  • Edited Volumes (2)
  • Notes to Readers (1)

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Working in the carpet bazaar in Bukhara last summer, wonderful coffee and a great atmosphere. #wishbonecafe #carpetbazaar #bukhara #robertspengler #innerasia #centralasia #silkroad #silkroutes #centralasiancarpets #fruitfromthesands #fruitsofthesilkroad #china
This photo is a throwback, but I am heading back to the heart of the ancient Silk Road in a few days. Looking for the origins of the food we eat. This photo shows one of the streets in Samarkand’s City of the Dead, Shah-i-Zinda, many of the tombs in this Islamic cemetery date to the 15th century, the city sat at the crossroads of the ancient world and was a center of commerce and intellectual pursuits. Visit robertnspengler.com #mosque #bibikhanym #registan #uzbekistan #samarkand #timur #tamerlane #timurthegreat #shahizinda #cityofthedead #cemetary #archaeology #history #innerasia #centralasia #silkroad #silkroutes #settingsun #robertspengler #fruitfromthesands #robertspengler #fruitsofthesilkroad
I am heading back to Samarkand in a few days, exploring the origins of the food on our dining room tables. If you want to know more about the role that the Silk Road played in shaping what you eat, read Fruit from the Sands’, just published by the University of California Press @uc_press or visit robertnspengler.com #silkroad #tangdynasty #sogdian #innerasia #centralasia #robertspengler #fruitfromthesands #fruitsofthesilkroad #beijing #xian #china #sinology #caravan #glazedtiles #turkic #necropolis
A figurine of a Sogdian camel-back merchant as a sancai drip-glazed wear, from the Tang Dynasty, from a burial dated to 723AD - the tomb of Xianyu Lian in Xian. The tomb was excavated in 1957 and the funerary artifacts are currently on display in the National Museum in Beijing. If you want to know more about the history of long-distance exchange along the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty, read Fruit from the Sands’, just published by the University of California Press @uc_press or visit robertnspengler.com #silkroad #tangdynasty #sogdian #innerasia #centralasia #robertspengler #fruitfromthesands #fruitsofthesilkroad #beijing #xian #china #sinology #caravan #camel #sogdian #camelriding #frigiancap
A chubby sancai drip-glazed horse, from the Tang Dynasty, from a burial dated to 723AD - the tomb of Xianyu Lian in Xian. The tomb was excavated in 1957 and the horse is currently on display in the National Museum in Beijing. If you want to know more about the history of long-distance exchange along the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty, read Fruit from the Sands’, just published by the University of California Press @uc_press or visit robertnspengler.com #silkroad #tangdynasty #sogdian #innerasia #centralasia #robertspengler #fruitfromthesands #fruitsofthesilkroad #beijing #xian #china #sinology #caravan #horse #equine #equestrian
To make up for the butterfly caterpillar that I just posted on #nationalmothweek here is a giant leopard moth or eyed tiger moth in the #Erebidae clade. #Hypercompescribonia #hypercompe #leopardmoth #spenglercabin #moth #thebeautyofnature #blackandwhite #leopardspots #animalprint #stylishoutfit
I realize the Eastern Black Swallowtail is a butterfly and this is #nationalmothweek, but I already posted my cecropia moth caterpillar. Add to the cute little creatures in my garden, this caterpillar only eats Apiaceae, such as my dill plant. Like the cecropia caterpillar on my cherry tree, this little #Papiliopolyxenes is too cute for me to remove from my dill. Also, a cool side fact, but the coloration mimicks the monarch caterpillar, which is toxic. Birds avoid it thinking it is its #doppelgänger. #caterpillar #butterfly #metamorphosis #dill #mimicking #robertspengler #insects #nature #lifeinmygarden #gardening #guests #easternblackswallowtail
The wild progenitor of flax, linseed oil, or linen (did you know that they all come from the same plant?). This small Linum bienne plant was growing in the Jena botanical gardens. Sadly, my progenitor flax plants did not do so well this year. Flax is one of the earliest plants in the world to express traits of domestication, with phenotypical changes appearing in cultivated populations over seven millennia ago in the Fertile Crescent. #flax #linen #linseedoil #linseedoil #domestication #fertilecrescent #linumbiene #ancientcrops #originsofagriculture #robertspengler #archaeobotany #paleoethnobotany

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