A folklore research on gravestones: Mersin example

This study is about the evaluation of gravestones in Mersin City Cemetery from a folkloric perspective. In Mersin City Cemetery, there are graves of Jews and Christians as well as Muslims. In this context, the cultural diversity exhibited by the research universe stands out as a remarkable element. Mersin City Cemetery is known as the largest cemetery in Mersin province. Within the scope of the study, a written and visual source scan was first conducted. Among the 75,000 gravestones in the cemetery, 500 gravestones with Latin letters were found worthy of examination and were deemed sufficient to make a general assessment on the subject, and the study was limited to this sample. In the first part of the study, information was provided about the historical, geographical and demographic structure of the Mersin region in order to understand the cultural structure of the study area. Then, in order to make the gravestone tradition among the Turks understandable, a detailed examination was conducted under the titles of "Gravestones Before Islam" and "Gravestones After Islam" with a chronological approach. In the second part of the study, Latin-lettered gravestones in Mersin City Cemetery were classified according to folklore elements and a descriptive analysis was performed. Gravestone inscriptions were examined in the context of form, content, word and semantic arts and their literary values were tried to be revealed. In the third part, together with the conclusion part, the inscriptions and photo selections belonging to the gravestones in Mersin City Cemetery were included. In this way, it was aimed to contribute to Mersin folk culture by determining the traditional value of gravestones and the inscriptions on them that can be evaluated as folk art products.