Abstract Boncuklu Höyük’s excavation over 18 years tracked the development of a forager wetland settlement that adopted food production in central Anatolia from ca. 9400–7500 cal bc and whose environment resembled little its modern setting within an irrigated agricultural landscape. The Boncuklu Project developed a multi-layered approach when presenting its scientific findings to a diverse community, including Turkish and international visitors attracted by its association with nearby World Heritage listed Çatalhöyük. Engaging visitors with an unfamiliar society living in an extinct landscape–literally engaging with a landscape of the mind–via an archaeological record lacking in comprehensible structures, monumentality and impressive artefacts was challenging, especially for children. Archaeobotanical evidence, central to the site’s research, was interpreted to illustrate the transition between hunter-gatherer and farmer lifeways and the stark changes between past and present landscapes. Interpretation focused on experience-led offerings via a small visitor centre, replica houses, crop plots and a wetland, complemented with printed and online resources narrated by cartoon child guides. Lessons were learned about the effectiveness of different media, including the disproportionate public engagement value of replica buildings, gardens and ponds, the latter containing now-unfamiliar crops and flora.
Chaddock et al. (Thu,) studied this question.