Peer-Reviewed Publications
IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER BY SECTIONJournal Articles
Antonosyan, M., Roberts, P., Aspaturyan, N., Mkrtchyan, S., Lucas, M., Boxleitner, K., Jabbour, F., Hovhannisyan, A., Cieślik, A., Sahakyan, L. and Avagyan, A. (2024) Multiproxy evidence for environmental stability in the lesser Caucasus during the late Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 330, 108559
Li, Kangkang, Xiaoguang Qin, Gill Plunkett, Samantha Presslee, Robert Spengler, Bing Xu, Yong Wu, Xiaohong Tian, Dong Wei, Chunxue Wang, Huiqiu Shao, Guijin Mu, Hongjuan Jia, Wen Li, Jing Feng, and Jiaqi Liu (2024) Multi-proxy investigations of Bronze Age diet and environment in the hyper-arid eastern Tarim Basin (Lop Nur), northwest China. Journal of Archaeological Science. 171:106089.
Peters, Carli Kristine K. Richter, Shevan Wilkin, Sören Stark, Basira Mir-Makhamad, Ricardo Fernandes, Farhod Maksudov, Sirojidin Mirzaakhmedov, Husniddin Rahmonov, Stefanie Schirmer, Kseniia Ashastina, Alisher Begmatov, Michael Frachetti, Sharof Kurbanov, Michael Shenkar, Taylor Hermes, Fiona Kidd, Andrey Omelchenko, Barbara Huber, Nicole Boivin, Shujing Wang, Pavel Lurje, Madelynn von Baeyer, Rita Dal Martello & Robert N. Spengler III (2024) Archaeological and molecular evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia. Nature Communications. 15: 2697.
Tang, Li, Shevan Wilkin, Kristine Korzow Richter, Madeleine Bleasdale, Xinzhou Chen, Zhujun Chen, Ricardo Fernandes, Yuanhong He, Shuai Li, Michael Petraglia, Ashley Scott, Yang Tsho, Fallen Teoh, Tinlei TseRing, Lin Xi, Haibin Yuan, Yan Tong, Zhengwei Zhang, Patrick Roberts, Wei He, Robert Spengler, Hongliang Lu, Shargan Wangdue, and Nicole Boivin (2024) Paleoproteomic evidence reveals dairying supported prehistoric occupation of the highland Tibetan Plateau. Scientific Advances. 9:15
Shnaider, Svetlana, Snezhana V. Zhilich, Lidia V. Zotkina, Kseniia A. Boxleitner, William T.T. Taylor, Nuritdin Sayfullaev, Vladimir V. Koval, Svetlana V. Baranova, Alexander A. Chernonosov, Lyubov A. Kutnyakova, Laure Tonasso-Calvière, Ludovic Orlando, Robert Spengler (2023) Occupation of highland Central Asia: New evidence from Kurteke rockshelter, Eastern Pamir. Archaeological Research in Asia. 34: 100443.
Ventresca-Miller, A.R.; Wilkin, S.; Smithers, R.; Larson, K.; Spengler, R.; Haruda, A.; Kradin, N.; Bazarov, B.; Miyagashev, D.; Odbaatar, T.; et al. (2023) Adaptability of Millets and Landscapes: Ancient Cultivation in North-Central Asia. Agronomy. 13, 2848.
Spengler, Robert N III (2023) Response to A Posthumanist Approach to the Origin of Rice Agriculture in Southern China, by Jiajing Wang. Current Anthropology. 64(3): 2023.
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.
Mir-Makhamad, B., V. A. Parshuto, P. B. Lurie, A. G. Pulotov, Sh. F. Kurbanov, R. N. Spengler III (2022) ЗЕМЛЕДЕЛИЕ В БАССЕЙНЕ СРЕДНЕГО ЗЕРАВШАНА: ПРЕДВАРИТЕЛЬНЫЙ ОТЧЕТ ОБ АРХЕОБОТАНИЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯХ ПЕНДЖИКЕНТА (Agriculture in The Middle Zeravshan Basin: Preliminary Report on Archaeobotany Research of Penjikent), In: МАТЕРИАЛЫ ПЕНДЖИКЕНТСКОЙ АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ЭКСПЕДИЦИИ (Materials Pendjikent Archaeological Expeditions); Issue XXV, Report on fieldwork of the expedition in 2021; P. B. Lurie and N. V. Semenov (Eds.) Publishing house of the State Hermitage: Saint Petersburg
Tang, Li, Hongliang Lu, Xinzhou Chen, Hailun Xu, Nicole Boivin, Michael Storozum, Feng Yang, Shuai Li, Xinyi Liu, and Robert N. Spengler III. (2022) Prehistoric Agricultural Decision Making in the Western Himalayas: Ecological and Social Variables. Antiquity: 1-18.
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.
Shen, H., Li, X., Spengler, R., Zhou, X., & Zhao, K. (2021). Forest cover and composition on the Loess Plateau during the Middle to Late-Holocene: Integrating wood charcoal analyses. The Holocene, 31(1), 38-49.
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.
Edited Volumes
Spengler, Robert N., III, Mayke Wagner, and Pavel Tarasov, eds. (2016) Introduction and Intensification of Agriculture in Central Eurasia and Adjacent Regions. Special Edition volume of The Holocene. 26(10)
Frachetti, Michael D. and Robert N. Spengler III, eds. (2015) Mobility and Ancient Society in Asia and the Americas, Springer Publishing: New York.
Book Chapters
Spengler, Robert (2024) Agricultural Fields, Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Second Edition, Pp 81–90 Academic Press: London.
Cerasetti, Barbara, Roberto Arciero, Traci N. Billings, Maurizio Cattani, Luana D’Ippolito, Luca Forni, Elise Luneau, Kyle G. Olson, Alberto C. Potenza, Lynne M. Rouse, Robert N. Spengler III (2022) The Rise and Decline of the Desert Cities The Last Stages of the BMA C at Togolok 1 (Southern Turkmenistan), In Cultures in Contact Central Asia as Focus of Trade, Cultural Exchange and Knowledge Transmission. Christoph Baumer, Mirko Novák, and Susanne Rutishauser (Eds.), pp. 89-117, Schriften zur Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Spengler, Robert N., III (2019) Fruits on the Ancient Silk Road. In Susan Whitfield and Fleur Jones, eds. In Silk Roads. Thames & Hudson: London.
Spengler. Robert N., III (2018) Paleoethnobotany. In Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences. Gill Campbell and Sandra L. López Varela, eds. Wiley and Blackwell: New York.
Spengler, Robert N., III (2015) Central Asia, pre-Silk Road Agricultural Exchange. In Mary Beaudry and Karen Metheny, eds. In Archaeology of Food. Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, Maryland.
d'Alpoim Guedes, Jade, and Robert N. Spengler III (2015) Sampling in Paleoethnobotany. In Method and Theory in Paleoethnobotany. University Press of Colorado: Denver, Colorado.