Edirne Üç Şerefeli Mosque tombstones

195 tombstones at Edirne Üç Şerefeli Camii Cemetery areinvestigated. 55 of these tombstones were for females and 139 were formales as Ottoman tombstones for women and men differ in appearance. Allof the tombstones were ornamented by scraping and carving technique: thistechnique is used to give the embossment effect on the tombstone surface. Itwas also seen that one of the tombstones were painted.93 of these tombstones has rectangular shaped tops (?başlık?), 31 ofthem has sliced tops, 15 of them are shaped as angular arcs, 5 of them areshaped as circular arcs, 20 of them have rectangular prism bodies, and 5 ofthem have triangular frontals. Besides the listed tombstones, we also saw 20broken tombstones and sarcophagus that show rectangular form.92 of the tombstones were marble and of them were stone. None ofthem had any sign or signature of the artists who built them.All of the tombstones were superscripted. Besides the actualinformation in superscriptions, name of poems are not found. Thesuperscription texts are placed either horizontal or diagonal. We investigated166 tombstones with horizontal and 11 diagonal pattern. The oldesttombstone have the time stamp of 1077(1666) and the newest one belongsto 1293(1875). Most of the tombstones belong to the time period between1228/1812 and 1263/1846. No mark of epidemic disease had been tracked.Due to lack of birthdays on the tombstones, it was not possible to calculatethe average age for the investigated graves.The beautifiers and decorations are mostly around top part oftombstones, to be more specific at ?başlık? for male and at ?tepelik? forfemale graves. And they appear mostly on left and right sides and corners ofsarcophaguses. The symbols used for decorations can be classified into twogroups: symbols of plants and symbols of objects. The plant symbols foundon the tombstones are rose, tulip, bellflower, cypress tree, date palm, bunchof grape, acanthus, pear, pomegranate, aster and vinca rosea. While objectfigures found on the tombstones are crest, vase, fruit bowl, scarf, jewelry andwickerwork. While object symbols appear together with plant symbols, plantsymbols appear also alone.At Edirne Üç Şerefeli Camii Cemetery, the directions of tombstonesare modified due to unconscious and haphazard labor and surveys. Whilstcemeteries of the mosques are in better shape than the others; Üç ŞerefeliCamii cemetery has a subverted view. Some of the tombstones are inheritedto our age broken or with missing parts. This damage is result of time andnature, but most dominant reason for current state seems to be thehaphazard work done at the cemetery itself. Especially symbolicsarcophaguses are affected worse; most of them having broken side faces.It is obvious that if required measures are not taken to protect thetombstones that encapsulate an important aspect of the art and social life oftheir ages, there won?t be much left to future generations besides theexamples kept in the museums.Today it is not common to have decorations or shaping techniques onthe tombstone describing the person. Currently there is only one actual ruleis alive from Ottoman tombstones tradition, which is setting the direction ofthe graves so that the head part of the grave so the tombstone faces towardsthe holy city. And there is no visual difference between male and femaletombstones anymore. The difference can only be told by reading the text onthe stone. As it was the case with Ottoman tombstones, it is rare to finddetailed beautifiers on woman tombstones.The scripts on the tombstones disappear by the external effects bytime. And they are written in a disorganized manner without having anyartistic considerations.