Publications

Spengler, Robert N., III, Frank Kienast, Patrick Roberts, Nicole Boivin, David R. Begun, Kseniia Ashastina, and Michael Petraglia (2023) Bearing Fruit: Miocene Apes and Rosaceous Fruit Evolution. Biological Theory. 18, 134–151.

Mir-Makhamad, Basira, and Robert N. Spengler III (2023) Testing the applicability of Watson’s Green Revolution concept in first millennium CE Central Asia. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.

Von Baeyer, Madelynn, Timothy J. Tangbarger, and Robert N. Spengler III (2022) Loss of Reproductive Organ Separation Zones as Adaptation to Anthropogenic Seed-Dispersal-Based Mutualism. Annual Plant Reviews. 5(4).

Billings, Traci N., Barbara Cerasetti, Luca Forni, Roberto Arciero, Rita Dal Martello, Marialetizia Carra, Lynne M. Rouse, Nicole Boivin, and Robert N. Spengler III (2022) Agriculture in the Karakum: An archaeobotanical analysis from Togolok 1, southern Turkmenistan (ca. 2300-1700 B.C.). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 10.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2022) Insularity and Early Domestication: Anthropogenic ecosystems as habitat islands. OIKOS. 2022(12), e09549.

Chang, Claudia, Sergeo Sergievich Ivanov, Perry Alan, Tourtellotte, Robert N. Spengler III, Basira Mir-Makhamad, and David Kramar (2022) Ancient agricultural and pastoral landscapes on the south side of Lake Issyk-Kul: Preliminary surveys of the Juuku Valley and Lower Kizil Suu Valley, archaeobotanical results of three stratigraphic profiles, and GIS modeling of Iron Age in Lower Kizil Suu. Lands. 11(6), 902.

Mir-Makhamad, Basira, Rasmus Bjørn, Sören Stark, and Robert N. Spengler (2022) Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) Domestication and Dispersal Out of Central Asia. Agronomy. 12(8), 1758.

Huber, Barbara, Thomas Larsen, Robert N. Spengler, and Nicole Boivin (2022) How to use modern science to reconstruct ancient scents. Nature: Human Behavior. 6(5), 611-614.

Schneider, S.V., K. A. Ashastina, S. Alisher kyzy, N. Saifuloev, G.A. Zakabluk, A.A. Chernonosov, R. Spengler, and L.V. Zotkina (2021) Результаты Комплексного Исследования Памятника Куртеке (Восточный Памир) (Results of a Comprehensive Study of the Kurteke Monument (Eastern Pamir)), Теория и практика археологических исследований (Theory and Practice of Archaeological Research). 33(4), 284-296.

Mir-Makhamad, Basira, Sirojidin Mirzaakhmedov, Husniddin Rahmonov, Andrey Omel’chenko, Sören Stark, and Robert N. Spengler III (2021) Qarakhanids on the Edge of the Bukhara Oasis: Archaeobotany of Medieval Paykend. Economic Botany. 75, 195–214.

Wilkin, Shevan, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Ricardo Fernandes, Robert Spengler, William T.-T. Taylor, Dorcas R. Brown, David Reich, Douglas J. Kennett, Brendan J. Culleton, Laura Kunz, Claudia Fortes, Aleksandra Kitova, Pavel Kuznetsov, Andrey Epimakhov, Victor F. Zaibert, Alan K. Outram, Egor Kitov, Aleksandr Khokhlov, David Anthony, and Nicole Boivin (2021) Dairying enabled Early Bronze Age Yamnaya steppe expansions. Nature. 598, 629–633.

Taylor, William T. T., Mélanie Pruvost, Cosimo Posth, William Rendu, Maciej T. Krajcarz, Aida Abdykanova, Greta Brancaleoni, Robert Spengler, Taylor Hermes, Stéphanie Schiavinato, Gregory Hodgins, Raphaela Stahl, Jina Min, Saltanat Alisher kyzy, Stanisław Fedorowicz, Ludovic Orlando, Katerina Douka, Andrey Krivoshapkin, Choongwon Jeong, Christina Warinner, and Svetlana Shnaider (2021) Evidence for early dispersal of domestic sheep into Central Asia. Nature: Human Behavior. 5, 1169–1179.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Xinying Zhou, Soren Stark, Daniel Fuks, Li Tang, Basira Mir-Makhamad, Rasmus Bjørn, Hongen Jiang, Luca M. Oliviari, Alisher Begmatov, and Nicole Boivin (2021) A Journey to the West: The Ancient Dispersal of Rice Out of East Asia. Rice. 14, 83.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2021) Niche Construction Theory in Archaeology: A Critical Review. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 28, 925-955.

Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, G., B. Mir-Makhamad, and R. N. Spengler III (2021) Interpreting Diachronic Size Variation in Prehistoric Central Asian Cereal Grains. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 9, 633634.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Michael Petraglia, Patrick Roberts, Kseniia Ashastina, Logan Kistler, Natalie G. Mueller, and Nicole Boivin (2021) Exaptation Traits for Megafaunal Mutualisms as a Factor in Plant Domestication. Frontiers in Plant Science. 12, 649394.

Tan, Liangcheng, Guanghui Dong, Zhisheng An, R. Lawrence Edwards, Haiming Li, Dong Li, Robert Spengler, Yanjun Cai, Jiang Lan, Rustam Orozbaev, Ruiliang Liu, Jianhui Chen, Hai Xu, and Fahu Chen (2021) Megadrought and cultural exchange along the proto-silk road. Science Bulletin. 66, 603-611.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Li Tang, Ayushi Nayak, Nicole Boivin, and Luca Maria Olivieri (2021) The Southern Central Asian Mountains as an Ancient Agricultural Mixing Zone: New archaeobotanical date from Barikot in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 30, 463–476.

Spengler, Robert N. III, William Taylor, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Bryan Miller, Shevan Wilkin, Tekla Schmause, Patrick Roberts, and Nicole Boivin (2021) An Imagined Past? Nomadic Narratives in Central Asian Archaeology. Current Anthropology. 62(3), 251-286.

Li Tang, Hongliang Lu, Jixiang Song, Sharge Wangdue, Xinzhou Chen, Zhengwei Zhang, Xinyi Liu, Nicole Boivin, and Robert N. Spengler III (2020) The transition to a barley-dominant cultivation system in Tibet: First millennium BC archaeobotanical evidence from Bangga. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 61, 101242.

Shen, Hui, Xiaoquiang Li, Robert N. Spengler III, Xinying Zhou, and Keliang Zhao (2020) Forest cover and composition on the Loess Plateau during the Middle to Late Holocene: Integrating wood charcoal analyses. The Holocene. 31(2),38-49.

Zhou, Xinying; Lin Zhu, Robert N. Spengler III, Keliang Zhao, Junchi Liu, Xing Xu, Yige Bao, John Dodson, Hai Xu, and Xiaoqiang Li (2020) Water Management and Wheat Yields in Ancient China: Carbon isotope discrimination of archaeological wheat grains. The Holocene. 31(2), 285-293.

Mueller, Natalie G. Robert N Spengler III, Ashley Glenn, and Kunsang Lama (2020) Bison, anthropogenic fire, and the origins of agriculture in eastern North America. The Anthropocene Review. (Special Issue), 1-18.

Stark, Sören, Fiona J. Kidd, Jamal K. Mirzaakhmedov, Shujing Wang, Robert N. Spengler III, Siroj J. Mirzaakhmedov, Zachary Silvia, Silvia Pozzi, Husniddin Rakhmonov, Megan Sligar, and Munira Sultanova (2020) The Uzbek-American Expedition in Bukhara. Preliminary Report on the Third Season (2017). Iran. 60(2), 149-199.

Yang, Q., X. Zhou, R. N. Spengler III, K. Zhao, J. Liu, Y. Bao, P. W. Jia, and X. Li (2020) Prehistoric agriculture and social structure in the southwestern Tarim Basin: Multiproxy analyses at Wupaer. Scientific Reports. 10(1), 14235-14246.

Wilkin, Shevan, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Bryan K. Miller, Robert N. Spengler III, William T. Taylor, Ricardo Fernandes, Richard Hagan, Madeline Bleasdale, Jana Zech, S. Ulziibayar, Erdene Myagmar, Nicole Boivin, and Patrick Roberts (2020) Economic Diversification Supported the Growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires. Scientific Reports. 10, 3916.

Zhou, Xinying, Jianjun Yu, Hui Shen, Keliang Zhao, Ge Junyi, Yige Bao, Junchi Liu, Qingjiang Yang, Robert N. Spengler III, and Xiaoqiang Li (2020) 5,200-year-old cereal grains from the eastern Altai Mountains redate the trans-Eurasian crop exchange. Nature Plants. 6, 78-87.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2020) Anthropogenic Seed Dispersal: Rethinking the origins of plant domestication. Trends in Plant Science. 25(4), 340-348.

Ventresca Miller, Alicia R., Robert N. Spengler III, Ashleigh Haruda, Bryan Miller, Shevan Wilkin, Sarah Robinson, Patrick Roberts, and Nicole Boivin (2020) Ecosystem Engineering Among Ancient Pastoralists in Northern Central Asia. Frontiers in Earth Science. 8, 168.

Taylor, William, Julia Clark, Jamsramjav Bayarsaikhan, Tumuurbaatar Turshinjargal, Jessica Thompson Jobe, William Fitzhugh, Richard Kortum, Robert N. Spengler III, Svetlana Shnaider, Frederik Seersholm, Isaac Hart, Nicolas Case, Shevan Wilkin, Jessica Hendy, Ulrike Thuering, Bryan Miller, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Andrea Picia, Nils Vanwezer, Franziska Irmer, Samantha Brown, Aida Abdykanova, Daniel Shultz, Victoria Pham, Michael Bunee, Katerina Douka, Emily Jones, and Nicole Boivin (2020) Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia. Scientific Reports. 10, 1001.

Stephens, L., D. Fuller, N. Boivin, T. Rick, N. Gauthier, A. Kay, B. Marwick, C. Geralda, R. N. Spengler, et al. (2019) Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use. Science. 365(6456), 897-902.

Taylor, William T., Svetlana Shnaider, Robert N. Spengler III, Ludovic Orlando, Aida Aboykanova, and Andrei Krivoshapkin (2019) Investigating Ancient Animal Economies and Exchange in Kyrgyzstan’s Alay Valley. Antiquity. 93(367), e2.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2019) Origins of the Apple: The Role of Megafaunal Mutualism in the Domestication of Malus and Rosaceous Trees. Frontiers in Plant Science. 10(617), 1-18.

Spengler, Robert N., III, and Natalie Mueller (2019) Grazing animals drove domestication of grain crops. Nature Plants. 5, 656–662.

Ren, Meng, Zi-Hua Tang, Xin-Hua Wu, Robert N. Spengler III, Hong-En Jiang, Yi-Min Yang, and Nicole Boivin (2019) The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs. Science Advances. 5(6), eaaw1391.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2019) Dung Burning in the Archaeobotanical Record of West Asia: Where are we now? Special Edition Volume of Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 28, 215-227.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Farhod Maksudov, Elissa Bullion, Ann Merkle, Taylor Hermes, and Michael Frachetti (2018) Arboreal crops on the medieval Silk Road: Archaeobotanical studies at Tashbulak. PLoS ONE. 13(8), e0201409.

Leipe, Christian, Stefanie Müller, Konrad Hille, Hirofumi Kato, Franziska Kobe, Mareike Schmidt, Konrad Seyffert, Robert N. Spengler III, Mayke Wagner, Andrzej W. Weber, and Pavel E. Tarasov (2018) Vegetation change and human impacts on Rebun Island (Northwest Pacific) over the last 6000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews. 193, 129-144.

Doumani Dupuy, Paula, Robert N. Spengler III, and Michael Frachetti (2018) Eurasian Textiles: Case studies in exchange during the incipient and later Silk Road periods. Quaternary International. 468 (Part B), 228-239.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Ilaria de Nigris, Barbara Cerasetti, and Lynne M. Rouse (2018) The Breadth of Dietary Economy in the Central Asian Bronze Age: A case study from Adji Kui in the Murghab Region of Turkmenistan. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 22, 372-381.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Naomi F. Miller, Reinder Neef, Perry A. Tortellotte, and Claudia Chang (2017) Linking agriculture and exchange to social developments of the Central Asian Iron Age. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 48, 295-308.

Leipe, Christian, Elena A. Sergusheva, Stefanie Müller, Robert N. Spengler III, Tomasz Goslar, Hirofumi Kato, Mayke Wagner, Andrzej W. Weber, and Pavel E. Tarasov (2017) Barley (Hordeum vulgare) in the Okhotsk culture (5th-10th century AD) of northern Japan and the role of cultivated plants in hunter-gatherer economies. PLoS ONE. 12(3), e0174397.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Pavel Tarasov, and Mayke Wagner (2016) Introduction to the Special Issue: ‘Introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions’. The Holocene. 26, 1523-1526.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Natalia Ryabogina, Pavel Tarasov, and Mayke Wagner (2016) The spread of agriculture into northern Central Asia: Timing, pathways, and environmental feedbacks. The Holocene. 26, 1527-1540.

Miller, Naomi F., Spengler, Robert N., III, and Michael Frachetti (2016) Millet cultivation across Eurasia: Origins, spread, and the influence of seasonal climate. The Holocene. 26, 1566-1575.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2015) Agriculture in the Central Asian Bronze Age. Journal of World Prehistory. 28(3), 215–253.

Doumani, P. N., M. D. Frachetti, R. Beardmore, T. Schmaus, R. N. Spengler, and A. N. Mar’yashev (2015) Burial ritual, agriculture, and craft production among Bronze Age pastoralists at Tasbas (Kazakhstan). Archaeological Research in Asia. 1-2, 17–32.

Spengler, Robert, N. III, Barbara Cerasetti, Margareta Tengberg, Maurizio Cattani, and Lynne M. Rouse (2014) Agriculturalists and pastoralists: Bronze Age economy of the Murghab alluvial fan, southern Central Asia. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 23: 805–820.

d’Alpoim Guedes, Jade, Lu Hongliang, Li Yongxian, Wu Xiaohong, Robert N. Spengler III, and Mark S. Aldenderfer (2014) Moving Agriculture onto the Tibetan Plateau: The Archaeobotanical Evidence. Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Science. 6, 255–269.

Spengler, R. N., M. D. Frachetti, P. N. Doumani, L. M. Rouse, B. Cerasetti, E. Bullion, and A. N. Mar’yashev (2014) Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 281, 20133382.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Paula Doumani, and Michael Frachetti (2014) Late Bronze Age agriculture at Tasbas in the Dzhungar Mountains of eastern Kazakhstan. Quaternary International. 348, 147–157.

Spengler, Robert N., III (2014) Niche Dwelling vs. Niche Construction: Landscape Modification in the Bronze and Iron Ages of Central Asia. Human Ecology. 42(6), 813–821.

Langlie, BrieAnna S., Natalie G. Mueller, Robert N. Spengler, and Gayle J. Fritz (2014) Agricultural Origins from the Ground Up: Archaeological Perspectives on Plant Domestication. American Journal of Botany. 101(10), 1601–1617.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Claudia Chang, and Perry A. Tourtellotte (2013) Agricultural Production in the Central Asian mountains: Tuzusai, Kazakhstan (410-150 BC). Journal of Field Archaeology. 38(1), 68–85.

Spengler, Robert N., III, Michael D. Frachetti, and Gayle J. Fritz (2013) Ecotopes and Herd Foraging Practices in the Bronze and Iron Age, Steppe and Mountain Ecotone of Central Asia. Journal of Ethnobiology. 33(1), 125–147.

Spengler, Robert N., III, and George Willcox (2013) Archaeobotanical results from Sarazm, Tajikistan, an Early Bronze Age Settlement on the edge: Agriculture and exchange. Journal of Environmental Archaeology. 10(3), 211–221.

Frachetti, Michael D., Robert N. Spengler, Gayle J. Fritz, and Alexei N. Mar’yashev (2010) Earliest direct evidence for broomcorn millet and wheat in the central Eurasian steppe region. Antiquity. 84, 993–1010.