We were fortunate that for the first time the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism's annual symposium for Excavations and Survey was held at Selcuk University, Konya. We took the opportunity to co-host a tour and reception on site at Çatalhöyük with the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara on the 28 th May. Over 300 people from the symposium visited the site for tours, followed by traditional Konya fare.

Figure 13. We invited the people from our local village to an open day.

Seventy percent of the population, from where most of our local team are employed, turned up in trucks and tractors. We conducted tours across the site (Fig. 13). and in the Visitor Centre. We presented a slide show of our work to date and future plans and invited them to comment on what Çatalhöyük meant to them and how they saw, and would like to see their involvement in the project. The aim is to involve and educate the local population to ensure future custodianship of their archaeological and environmental heritage. The day ended with dinner on site for everyone (Fig 14).

Figure 14. Dinner was served in the site dining room which has a capacity for 90 people. We had rather more for dinner at our open day for our local village but the men ate al fresco in the courtyard so we managed.

Figure 15. The men opted to eat outdoors.

The end of season press day was held on the 30 th July to which local politicians and regional press were invited. About 50 people were guided across the site. The day coincided with the discovery of the plastered skull which had been uncovered the day before but it was the small stone figurine (Fig. 2) that created the most excitement being so synonymous with the site. It featured in many ensuing news articles.