The 2004 season was a particularly productive year for figurine research both in terms of finds and data management and analysis. Seventy-two objects and fragments were excavated and recorded. Notable finds include a marble female figurine (Fig. 2) resembling Mellaart's category of ‘mother goddess' from disturbed burial fill in the South Area, and a marble anthropomorphic figurine from a floor cluster, and animal figurine cluster from bin or platform fill from the 4040 Area. Two new members, Lynn Meskell and Carrie Nakamura, joined Ali Türkcan and implemented a new program for the systematic study of the figurines. The most substantial work accomplished this season involved the design and execution of a new figurine and miniature object database containing over 1250 pieces. An initial review of the inherited records, material corpus and related data sets strongly indicated the need for a new and expanded database inclusive of all figurine objects and fragments from the field and Mellaart collections, and miscellaneous miniature shaped clay objects. The database design process did not simply involve archiving the collections, but engaged a critical rethinking of analytical and interpretive categories oriented towards a more integrative approach to figurine studies. Such an approach seems necessary given the multiple areas of cross-over between the figurine corpus and other data sets in terms of clay fabric sourcing, production and firing and representational imagery; within these practical and conceptual fields, certain distinct boundaries between data categories such as figurines, pendants, clay balls, wall art, and bucrania break down. Refocusing figurine research towards such areas of overlap prompts a productive rethinking of our taxonomic framework in terms of processes of resource acquisition, technological and gendered production, and use rather than in terms of the end product. A long-term goal of this new program aims to reposition figurine research as providing important social information about these processes in everyday and special activities at Çatalhöyük.