A proposal for the digital documentation of the modern Ottoman Postal Organization as a transboundary cultural heritage network

This thesis adresses the modern Ottoman postal organization, which took shape in the 19th century, as a holistic system with it's both tangible and intangible components, and considers it as a transboundary cultural heritage network. The Ottoman postal network has not been studied in the cultural heritage literature as a transboundary heritage element until now. Moreover, the lack of systematic and holistic documentation of the widely scattered data across a vast geography has created a significant gap in the preservation and understanding of this heritage. The primary aim of the study is to reveal the cultural heritage values of this multi-component structure from an original perspective and to develop a preservation framework through digital documentation methods which are aligned with contemporary approaches .In this context, diverse data from a wide geographical area has been investigated and evaluated by comparative and multi-layered analyses.While theoretical discussions draw on preservation theory and architectural history to define the cultural heritage value of the postal network, digital tools have been used to document, represent and make accessible this heritage. The Ottoman postal organization, for the first time, has been made visible in the cultural heritage literature as a transboundary heritage value, and a sustainable, accessible, and improvable heritage system has been established by integrating digital documentation methods into preservation research.Thus,the study contributes an innovative approach to both the cultural heritage field and digital preservation practices.