Abstract 3D laser and optical scanning techniques are widely employed in Cultural Heritage preservation for documenting pieces of different sizes and shapes. However, due to limitations of the ...methods available today, the results obtained vary according to different characteristics of the object under study. External surfaces showing very smooth features make the capturing process and the posterior processing a more elaborate task, requiring special attention and additional retouching to improve the final 3D model. Tombstones are a typical example of this type of objects, combining both flat external contours and refined outlines. In this work the procedure of creation of the digital model of the tombstone of the bishop Vasilije Petrović (Negosh) is described, a piece of art which combines both technical and historical importance. Post-processing steps required involved different software (Geomagic Design X, ZBrush, Adobe Photoshop) for surface correction and cleaning, details and photorealistic texture improvements and lost material restoration.
This study is about the book titled Kosovo Lodges- Tombs and Tombstones with Inscriptions written by Raif Virmica. Kosovo lodges, tombs and tombstones with inscriptions, which reflect the ...architectural tradition and taste of the Ottoman period in the simplest style are included in this book. According to the author, since there have not been for any published works about these structures in Kosovo so far, these structures are subject to extensive research for the first time with this study and introduced to the science public. The purpose of this book, which we will try to introduce, is to identify and present the year of foundation, architectural features and functions of these structures in Kosovo, which have been neglected by both the science community and local people and the state, and sometimes destroyed deliberately , leaving no trace of them. The spread of Islam in the Balkans and Kosovo and the superior success of the Ottoman civilization determined the establishment, development and identity of most cities. In the book, it is stated that it is not known how many lodges have been built since the Ottomans settled in the region and up today, but it is stated that ten sects have been active in Kosovo and one hundred and three lodges have been built since the Ottomans left the region politically. It has also been emphasized that the sects identified in Kosovo are the Halveti Kadiri, Sadi, Melami, Rifai, Bektashi, Nakşibendi, Şazeli and Mevlevi sects and that the lodges belong to these sects. Since the issue of tombs in Kosovo has not been researched before, there is no exact information about how many tombs there are, but as a result of the research, it is stated that there are 350-400 tombs. A lot of detailed information related to 45 lodge tombs, 80 private tombs and the people buried there, the purposes of the visits, and interesting never - known narrations about the tombs and lodges has been revealed in this piece of work. The information given in this book was compiled by the author himself by visiting the lodges and shrines; and the lodges and shrines that still exist in Kosovo have been documented. This piece of work is a very important reference book for studies on the Balkans, specifically Kosovo, as it contains valuable and factual information. The book consists of 623 pages and includes the author’s biography, a short preface, three main chapters, bibliography and photographs.
The origin of the medieval Black Death pandemic (AD 1346-1353) has been a topic of continuous investigation because of the pandemic's extensive demographic impact and long-lasting consequences
. ...Until now, the most debated archaeological evidence potentially associated with the pandemic's initiation derives from cemeteries located near Lake Issyk-Kul of modern-day Kyrgyzstan
. These sites are thought to have housed victims of a fourteenth-century epidemic as tombstone inscriptions directly dated to 1338-1339 state 'pestilence' as the cause of death for the buried individuals
. Here we report ancient DNA data from seven individuals exhumed from two of these cemeteries, Kara-Djigach and Burana. Our synthesis of archaeological, historical and ancient genomic data shows a clear involvement of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in this epidemic event. Two reconstructed ancient Y. pestis genomes represent a single strain and are identified as the most recent common ancestor of a major diversification commonly associated with the pandemic's emergence, here dated to the first half of the fourteenth century. Comparisons with present-day diversity from Y. pestis reservoirs in the extended Tian Shan region support a local emergence of the recovered ancient strain. Through multiple lines of evidence, our data support an early fourteenth-century source of the second plague pandemic in central Eurasia.
Review article of PhD thesis submitted in 2020 to the Archaeological Doctoral Programme, Doctoral School of History, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest under the supervision of Miklós Szabó.
It is well known that Ottoman Empire built numerous mosques, masjids, madrasah, inn, hammam and tekkes during its 600 years of history. Especially within the yards of masjids and tekkes, there are ...special burial grounds or graveyards which are called ‘hazire’ in Turkish. It can be stated that all the historical sites, relics, tombstones, graveyards and epitaphs are founding stones and cultural bridges of our society, connecting the past with the future.During the Ottoman reign, land was granted to Bektashi dervishes and dervishes of the other sects, who participated in conquests of Anatolia and Balkan Peninsula, in order to build their tekkes. One example is the tekke at Merdivenköy – İstanbul, which was granted by Orhan Gazi to Şahkulu Sultan and Mansur Baba who had come from Khorasan in 14th century and participated in the battle of Pelecanum, in order to build their tekke where a mausoleum exists. This graveyard in Merdivenköy, which is known as Mansur Baba Graveyard, is one of the many historical treasures standing against time. In this graveyard there are numerous tombstones, belonging to both Bektashi and other dervishes, written in Turkish but with a modified form of Arabic alphabet, which is generally referred as Ottoman writing. Thierry Zarcone reported in 1991 that there were 69 tombstones in the graveyard; but unfortunately, only 51 remain today, excluding foot-end stones. These tombstones belong to a period of 168 years, from 1753 to 1921 (from 1166 to 1137, according to Islamic calendar). In this study, all the tombstones were photographed; the writings were rewritten with Latin alphabet and then simplified to modern Turkish for a better understanding. Our aim was to create awareness and draw attention to the remaining Ottoman tombstones, surviving despite all the neglect and mistreatment, and sharing their contents. These tombstones bear many traces from the past including thoughts, beliefs and aspects of social life.
The extent to which socioeconomic status was associated with life expectancy in the 19
th
and early part of the twentieth century is poorly understood. We sought to determine the association between ...a deceased individual’s tombstone size, a potential marker of socioeconomic status, and their age of death in the late modern period. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 276 deceased individuals buried between 1820 and 1992 in a large cemetery in Quebec, Canada. The main outcome measure was age of death. We used generalized linear models adjusted for sex, marital status, and year of death to determine whether tombstone height and volume were associated with a greater number of years lived. Tombstone height and volume were associated with an older age of death in adjusted regression models. Individuals with tall tombstones lived 9.6 years longer than those with short tombstones (95% confidence interval, CI 3.9 to 15.4). Individuals with large volume tombstones lived 6.2 years longer than those with small tombstones (95% CI 1.7 to 10.8). Our findings indicate that in the 1800s and early 1900s, tombstone size was strongly associated with age of death. A possible explanation for this occurrence is that wealthy individuals, capable of purchasing more sizeable tombstones, were more likely to live a longer and healthier life.
Cemeteries are propitious settings in which to mourn the death of a loved one. Such expressions of grief have particular social logics associated with there being a corpse buried in the grave. But ...how is the relationship of the mourner transformed when there is no body as a result of a forced disappearance? Do the mourners’ interactions differ when there is an identified body as opposed to when there is not? Guided by these questions, Jardín Cementerio Universal de Medellín is presented as a space that unveils strategies used to deal with the complexity of mourning a loved one’s death. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the manifestations of mourning present in graves with identified and unidentified bodies. To this end, an ethnographic exercise was conducted involving a qualitative analysis of funerary material culture and non-participant observation. The study documents the importance of having a physical space, the gravestone, where one can grieve the loss of a loved one. It is revealed that this space is especially relevant in the case of the indirect victims of forced disappearance, who go through complex mourning processes in the absence of a grave to hold their loved one’s body. In this case, the burial ground is a space that bears witness to the acts of violence that Colombia has suffered.
Ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) measurement has previously been determined to be a good proxy for rock weathering intensity. As such, it has the potential to be useful for the establishment of ...relative weathering rates in culturally sensitive artefacts such as tombstones. This is the first study that makes use of an ultrasonic proxy in this manner to be carried out in South Africa, where many tombstones are constructed from locally produced gabbro stone. However, the delimitations of ultrasonic equipment have not been appropriately established for use on this particular lithology. This study investigates the relationship between UPV and the amount of time various tombstones have spent in situ at Cullinan Main Cemetery in South Africa, with the aim of determining if UPV can accurately be used to assess relative weathering rates for the tombstones there. Ultrasonic measurements were taken with two different transducer packages on 34 tombstones that had remained in the cemetery for between 15 and 100 years. The results show that there is a measurable, statistically significant positive relationship between inscription age and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), supporting the hypothesis that UPV is a valid proxy for rock weathering with respect to South African gabbro tombstones.
The Islamic inscriptions are considered to be one of the movable antiquities of archaeological and scientific importance. Thus, this study will address three inscriptions the first and second belong ...to two men and the third one belong to woman who lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries AH. These inscriptions were placed in the upper mosque in Hijrat Huth. Moreover, the study will discuss the founding text of the mosque.The most prominent contents of the writings are Quranic verses, religious and propaganda phrases. The inscriptions further mention information about the genealogy, titles of their owners, and the dates of their death, as well as verses from poetry of lamentation and the signature of the maker.There is no doubt that the inscriptions which are discussed and studied here are important because they are new and have not been studied by any scientific, as they revealed two scientific and social personalities at the time, namely the scholar Ali bin Salah al-Rassas (d.1089AH/1698 AD), and the scholar Muhammad bin Ahmed al-Rassas (d.1109 AH/1598 AD). The epigraphs of their graves were made of Balaq stone, the writing was carried out on them in Naskh script and the hidden thuluth; The third inscription concerns Al-Hurra: Zakiya bint Muhammad bin Ahmed Al-Rassas (d.1131AH/1718AD), which is made of limestone, and its inscriptions
In July-September 2022, during an abnormal drop in the water level of the Danube, near Izmail fortress at the bottom of the river, on a plot of 150-170×10-15 m at a depth of 1 to 1.5 m, local ...historians accidentally discovered three clusters of artifacts: fragments of marble tombstones, fragments of Ottoman ceramics, forged iron elements of rigging, as well as the remains of the hull of a small wooden sailboat and other finds (intact and fragmented cast iron cannonballs, bombs, and a flintlock pistol), which were more or less evenly scattered over the entire designated area.
The purpose of the research paper is to publish and analyze the most interesting and unique complex of artifacts found at the bottom of the river, namely intact and fragmented marble tombstones, both with and without epitaphs.
Scientific novelty. In the course of the research, conducted by the expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, it has become possible to expand significantly historical and archaeological knowledge about the history of the Izmail fortress during the late Ottoman period of its existence, mainly in the 18th – early 19th century.
Conclusions. Thanks to a rare natural phenomenon and the attentiveness of local historians, the collection of Ottoman tombstones from Izmail is augmented with 10 marble objects all at the same time, on which there are four epitaphs. Although only one of them is dated 1749, which, unfortunately, does not extend the chronology of the known epitaphs of 1719-1756, however, the objects contain other, previously unknown historical information. On two slabs, former military men of the Ottoman Porte are mentioned – the shahid and officer Ismail Aga and the nameless janissary of the 12th Orta. From the inscription on the first of them, we learned about Ismail Aga’s father – Emrullah Çelebi, who could have been a resident of Izmail and a teacher at a local educational institution. We should also mention the slab with the names of God, which could have been the amulet of the only preserved mosque in Izmail.
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