Figured Sepulchral Monuments in Mardin Museum

Abstract

Figured sepulchral monuments constitute the most remarkable group among the works exhibited in Mardin Museum. Şahideve sarcophagus epigraphs that are understood to have been acquired by way of purchase from Hasankeyf and Cizre do not exist in the inventory records. For this reason, it is difficult to determine the precise date of these samples. However, it is possible to make some comments about approximate periods of sepulchral monuments by considering their stylistic and artistic features. Sepulchral monuments contain an intensive figure repertoire consisting of humans relating to death and belief of life after-death, horses, birds, deer, goats, snakes, scorpions, lizards as well as weapons and some utensils such as swords, guns, daggers and rifles. War tools are related with concepts such as dominance, bravery and courage and in this respect, they are intended to emphasize hero personality of the person who died. Utensils are accepted to be descriptions relating to hobbies of the people who died . There is no precise information about the religion of those for whom sepulchral monuments have been constructed. However, similar sepulchral monuments determined in the region belong to the Islamic period and stylistic diversity of Christian sepulchral monuments produced in the same region strengthen the possibility that samples in Mardin Museum belong to the Islamic period. It is possible to interpret figured sepulchral monuments by relating them with nomadic tribes which have existed in the recent time and their life styles. Therefore, such sepulchral monuments will be assessed both in terms of their temporal aspect and the extent of their borders taken as expansion range; and their roots that bear traces of a tradition dating back to pre-Islamic uses. Sepulchral monuments appear to belong to a community bearing references relating to the nomadic life style and gaucho culture. They were continued to be used, undergoing some transformations, by the inclusion of cliverse components such asbelief, life style, and culture. The sepulchral monuments in Mardin Museum are a synthesis of extracts from Middle Asia, Anatolia and Mesopotamia cultures. There are similar sepulchral monuments with epigraphs belonging precisely to the 18th and 19th centuries in the nearby region. This substantiates the dating of these monuments to the period mentioned above.