The marks of bodily touches

In this thesis, emerging from the idea that making/leaving marks, as a technique used ever since prehistorical times, we tried to give a couple of examples from some images that carry marks of bodily touches and which have been referred to as index by Charles Sanders Pierce. The first part of the work mainly focuses on the formation of marks, on why mark should be acknowledged as a technique, and on the various aspects (e.g dialectical, anachronical, spiritual) that an image formed by this means could possess. While doing this, we cited some examples of prehistorical mural paintings as well as holy relics, presented along with the thoughts and comments of various philosophers and theorists known to have yielded some intellectual work on image. The second part has been addressed to practices in which the marks of bodily touch is again passed on the body itself. We depicted some lasting bodily alterations applied by primitive tribes where the body is etched or imprinted so as to leave a permanent mark, as well as the usages and functions of sealing and stamping typical to Turkish and Oriental cultures and their organic ties with marks. The third part, driven by the body-book analogy, is primarily a review of the historical development of paper following the invention of writing systems that constitute the book, and finally the formation and function of paper stamps. In a work pivoted around the concept of mark it was inevitable to point out at the transition process from clay to paper and eventually to books, as that would come to mean ignoring the presence of texts reproduced through marks of bodily touches. Thus, in relation with books, we dealt about the marks or labels made on books and how these marks have served as transferring agents of mark. The fourth and the final part exclusively reserved for "ex libris" and stamps consists of a brief history of both elements, and as an attempt to comprehend and analyze these two images, deals with them within the context of mark and representation. Key Words: mark, body, seal, paper stamp, ex libris