Current Projects:
On the Threshold of Urbanism: Investigating 4th–3rd Millennium BCE Pınarbaşı
Research Interests:
Prehistory of Southwest Asia; Archaeology of Death and Burial; Multi-Isotope Analyses; Settlement Archaeology; Neolithic; Chalcolithic; Early Bronze Age; Early Village Societies; Urban beginnings
Research Centres & Projects:
Art and Material Culture
Biography:
I am an archaeologist of Southwest Asia with a particular interest in the radical social changes characterising the prehistoric periods of the region, which include developments in community structures, subsistence strategies, and ritual behaviours. I am particularly interested in studying social bonds through the reconstruction of mortuary practices, living arrangements, and commensal practices. My research is explicitly interdisciplinary, and I frequently employ science-based techniques (particularly isotope analyses) to approach archaeology-driven questions. In my PhD Uncovering a Community: Investigating Lifestyles and Death Ways at Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria at the University of Liverpool – I combined evidence relating to chronology, mortuary behaviour, taphonomy, demographics, diet, and mobility to achieve a better understanding of cultural change and community structure at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. As a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Durham University-led project What’s in a House? Exploring the Kinship Structure of the World’s First Houses I focused specifically on the spatiotemporal variability of human mobility patterns across the main Neolithic transitions and the impact of such behaviours on group belonging. Most recently, I was awarded a G.A. Wainwright Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Oxford for my research project On the Threshold of Urbanism: Investigating 4th–3rd Millennium BCE Pınarbaşı. This research explores the social context that gave rise to the earliest cities in central Anatolia, by integrating archaeological (excavation and survey) and bioarchaeological (multi-isotope and aDNA) data from the Konya Plain of Türkiye.
Educational Background:
BA in Near Eastern and Science-Based Archaeology, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University; MA in Near Eastern Archaeology and Museum Studies, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University; PhD in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, the University of Liverpool.
Recent publications:
Plug J., Akkermans P.M.M.G., & Brüning M. L. (2026). Back to the Roots: Exploring Social Memory at Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad III, Syria. In: F. Borrell, H. Alarashi, & E. Healey (eds.), Neolithic in Syria (SENEPSE). Ex Oriente: Berlin.
Plug J., Blevins K.E., Abbès F. et al. (2025). Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Analysis Reveals Changing Connections to Place and Group Membership in the World’s Earliest Village Societies. Nature Sci Rep 15, 34598. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-18134-3
Düring B.S. & Plug J. eds (2024). The Archaeology of the ‘Margins’: Studies on Ancient West Asia in Honour of Peter M.M.G. Akkermans (Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 53). Sidestone Press, Leiden. DOI: 10.59641/h66998kt.
Croucher K. & Plug J. (2024). Between Life and Death: Continuing Bonds at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. In: Düring B.S. & Plug J. (eds), The Archaeology of the ‘Margins’: Studies on Ancient West Asia in Honour of Peter M.M.G. Akkermans (Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 53), pp 29-54. Sidestone Press, Leiden.
Van der Plicht J. & Plug J. (2024). Defining the Boundaries: Radiocarbon Dating Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad. In: Düring B.S. & Plug J. (eds), The Archaeology of the ‘Margins’: Studies on Ancient West Asia in Honour of Peter M.M.G. Akkermans (Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 53), pp 123-146. Sidestone Press, Leiden.
Pearson J., Evans J., Lamb A., …, Plug J., et al. (2023). Mobility and Kinship in the World's First Village Societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 120(4). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2209480119.
Plug J. (2023). Greater than the Sum of Parts: Mortuary Practice and Community Integration at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad. In: B.S. Düring, & P.M.M.G. Akkermans (eds.), Style and Society in the Prehistory of West Asia: Essays in Honour of Olivier P. Nieuwenhuyse (PALMA 29). Sidestone Press, Leiden, 35-54. DOI: 10.59641/oel8d7fg.
Plug J., Hodder I. & Akkermans P.M.M.G. (2021). Breaking Continuity? Site Formation and Temporal Depth at Çatalhöyük and Tell Sabi Abyad. Anatolian Studies, 71: 1-27. DOI: 1017/S0066154621000028.
Plug J. & Nieuwenhuyse O. (2018). Ceramics from the Cemeteries. In: Nieuwenhuyse O. (ed), Relentlessly Plain: Seventh Millennium Ceramics at Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria. Oxbow Books, Oxford & Havertown, 336-353. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvh1dhb9.
Plug J., van der Plicht J., & Akkermans P.M.M.G. (2014). Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria: Dating of Neolithic Cemeteries. Radiocarbon, 56(2): 543–554. DOI: 10.2458/56.17446
