Turkish Art (Archaeology)

In őrtilos, at the őrtilos-zrínyi-Újvár archaeological site, between 25 July 2016 and 26 May 2017, archaeological excavations  were  performed  supported  by  the  national  Cultural Fund (nKA) 207134/00284 project. In 2017, we have uncovered a 14.5 m deep well within the fortress. In the well there were human bones, military clothing and equipment remains found. during the exploration we could find a timber construction, which is without parallel according to our previous knowledge. the shaft of the well is octagonal, lined with oak planks.

In this paper, crystallographic aspects of ancient, medieval and modern Turkish ornaments are dealt with. Crystallographic patterns (CPs) are considerably different from other patterns. The following are characteristic of CPs: the edge of ornament elements draws the edge of the figure; maximal compactness of the ornament elements; lack of background or transformation of backgroundto ornament elements; minimization of the variety of ornament elements; symmetry is not usedfor form creation. In the process of the construction of CPs, symmetry appears as a result of combination, not as a means of its formation that is
characteristic of other ornaments. Their symmetries are analogous to symmetries of natural objects. The atoms andmolecules dispose themselves in crystals just as elements arrange themselves in CPs. In other words, CPs are constructed according to the same principles of crystal formation, i.e. the principle of tight packing. The similarity (isomorphism) of crystals
andornaments enables us to describe the ornaments with structural analysis terms, andthe similarity between ornaments andcrystal structures can be also usedin chemistry education.
This will bring an aesthetical aspect to education. An invisible part of nature can be studied as ornament creation. Each newly createdCP is the structural scheme of a number of possible
compounds. The familiarity with such ornaments and the ability to create them are important for solving compoundstructures. Similarity of patterns with some crystal structures
enables us to reach the following conclusions: mankindmay make use of the principles from which nature was created, and he may achieve a resemblance to the creation of nature
in ideal; mankind may create nothing whose prototype does not exist in nature.

The Çatalhöyük and Sha'ar Hagolan communities faced a new situation in human evolution, namely, the agglomeration of a very large population at one site. Each community developed different strategies to cope with the scalar stress it faced. This analysis concentrates on six different cultural phenomena and discusses the meaning of these differences. Ultimately, they reflect different social structures: the site of Çatalhöyük presents a fascinating large community that struggled with population pressure on the nuclear-family level, while at Sha'ar Hagolan the community was organized on the extended family level.

This thesis surveys origins of the Seljuk double-headed eagle, a cosmological symbol spread in art and architecture of medieval Anatolia after the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. It concentrates on Ancient Mesopotamia and Persia with references to Eurasia and Islamic domain.

La Mosquée Ketchaoua est située à un endroit populeux, à un lieu de passage entre le port et la Casbah. Cette mosquée symbolique de la ville a été rapidement reprise par les colonisateurs français qui ont occupé l’Algérie en 1830, elle a été transformée en église juste après l’occupation. En 1840, la mosquée a été détruite et à la place une cathédrale a été construite. La mosquée qui a été utilisée comme église pendant 120 ans, a été retransformée en mosquée dès l’indépendance de l’Algérie en 1962. Utilisée comme mosquée pendant de longues années, le bâtiment a connu un processus de réparation et de rénovation de la part de TIKA, suite à la demande personnelle de Tayyip Erdoğan, Président de la République de Turquie. Récemment, TIKA Algérie a publié certaines photographies de l’état final de la mosquée dans des réseaux sociaux, qui ont permis d’avoir des renseignements concernant l’étendue et la qualité des travaux. Je souhaite en partager mes observations.

Kütahya was perhaps the most important center of Armenian ceramic production in post-Medieval times.  Many of the thousands of surviving early eighteenth-century pieces, including a special order for some 10,000 tiles destined originally for the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, now in the Armenian Monastery of St. James, are inscribed in Armenian.  In the early twentieth century, many of these objects, including two dated and signed examples of the early sixteen century in blue and white, the oldest dated ceramics executed within the Ottoman Empire, were thought to be the work of Turkish ceramists patronized by well to do Armenian patrons, despite the quite clear inscriptions by the Armenian craftsmen themselves.  The variety and popularity of this Kütahya ware has had renewed interest in both Turkey and abroad.  The article is an overview o the history of Armenian Kütahya ceramics and its continuation after the genocide in Jerusalem.

The title ‘Turkish Art in German Collections’ has been preferred to ‘Turkish Art Collections in Germany’ because this article will not focus on the country’s major and well-known collections of Islamic art, but will highlight art objects of the Anatolian seljuks and ottomans kept in collections and museums in Germany whose collection focus is far away from Turkish or even Islamic art.1
When preparing the volume Islamic Art in Germany, we were surprised to find how many interesting Islamic art objects were kept in various collections all over Germany, most of them not on display and often neither known by the public nor sufficiently published. sometimes even their curators – in most cases not special- ists in Islamic art history – were not fully aware of the kind of treasures for which they were responsible.
In the interests of a better understanding, I shall start with a short overview of the different types of collections holding items of the material culture of the Is- lamic world. This will be done by subdividing the existing collections into eight categories, from which – in line with the Congress topic – I shall choose only a few examples belonging mainly to the ottoman world. In the second part of this paper, I shall introduce three collections which are not widely known for their seljuk or ottoman items.

The first step is the Balkan territory of the Ottoman Empire by conquest of
the Çimbe Castle in 1354. The most imprortant Ottoman cities in Balkan
geography; Adrianople, Didymoteicho, Varna, Thessaloniki, Skopje, Sarajevo,
Elbasan, Berat, Plovdiv, Shumen, Prizren. Organization and development of
the Ottoman city, religious and social complex with qualified structures are important
contribution. This complex was built in different regions of cities, thanks
to the establishment of a large neighborhood. The social and economic development
of the Ottoman city respects has been leading people effectively.
The Sultan and his family, top executives, traders, scholar and soldier built by
people like the physical development of cities with buildings.
In this study, based on archive and field researchs. The aim of this research;
the geography of Balkans is to determine the number of buildings built during
the Ottoman period.
And this building to determine how many of the present day arrived. This
research give to us, how much of which are within the scope of the reconstruction
activities in the Balkan geography residential units have been built
in different functional structures. Some of this structure in the form of complex,
which was built as a part of the single building. However, very few of these
buildings are still in the present day. The reason for this is; war, earthquake, fire
disaster, etc.

As a consequence of the Mongol invasion, in the 13th century which caused great damage and loss to the Turkic and Islamic world, the big scientific centers such as Bukhara, Samarkand and Baghdad were destroyed and the scientific environment where scientists could conduct their studies was eliminated. During this period, the scholars accommodating and working in these big centers of science searched for new places to protect themselves and continue their activities. Under these circumstances, Konya in Anatolia and Cairo in Egypt had become
attraction points for scientists. Specifically, during the 13th century, the Anatolian Seljuk capital Konya, has become one of centers of Islamic civilization, with extensive construction activities and significant scientific studies. Among these construction activities, madrasas which are educational institutions are of great importance. The Karatay Madrasa is one of the most outstanding structures in terms of both architectural and decorative features. The aim of this study is to examine and assess the architectural characteristics of the Karatay Madrasa which is well known for the dense tile mosaic ornament elements and monumental portal. According to the inscriptions on portal of Karatay Madrasa it was built in 649 H./1251 A.D. under patronage of the Grand Vizier and Amir Jalaluddin Qaratai during the reing of the Izz ad-Dīn Kaykāwus II. It is possible to state that the Karatay Madrasa, which hosted the visits, meetings and activities of the scholars and wisemen of the period, also guided the cultural life of the city.
The building is located in the city center, very close to Alaaddin Hill which is the inner castle of Konya. It is interesting to note that the Karatay Madrasa, which is the one of Anatolian Seljuk period madrasas with single floor, single iwan and closed courtyard, has a portal that doesn’t placed on the same axis as the iwan and the main facade. In addition, the monumental portal of the building which doesn’t open to the entrance iwan is differentiated by this feature from the widespread architectural practices of the era. The first examples of a closed courtyard plan, which can be observed in Anatolia in the middle of 12th century at Danishmendid madrasas such as Tokat Yağıbasan Madrasa (1152) and Niksar Yağıbasan Madrasa (1158), emerging about a hundred year later in a more advanced and regular manner in Karatay Madrasa revealing the architectural value of the building. While the structure is expected to reflect symmetrical features in the original architectural plan, some mismatches and irregularities within the architectural context of the madrasa highly probably occurred as an outcome of uncountable repairs and intense destruction over time.

Öz İslam Sanatı'nda kullanılan süslemeler dönemlere, coğrafyaya, milliyete ve sanatkârlara göre farklılıklar arz etmektedir. Süslemeler taş, çini, tuğla, ahşap ve kalemişi malzemelerle icra edilmiştir. Bezeme kompozisyonlarında başta geometrik süslemeler, yıldız (semavi) sistemleri, naturalist veya soyut bitkisel motifler ve figüratif süslemeler kullanılmıştır. İslam'ın erken dönem tezyin programlarında Helenistik ve Sasani etkileriyle başlayan süsleme kompozisyonları, İslam'ın Orta Asya'dan Endülüs'e kadar yayılması, artık farklı milletlerin İslam'a dâhil olması ile birlikte yeni süsleme repetuarları da zuhur etti. Bu süsleme konularının dinsel içerikli olduğu gibi günlük yaşamadan ve eski inanışlardan da kesitler sunduğu görülmektedir. Her toplumun sanatçısı ve banisi kendi beğenisini ve hafızasındaki biçimleri İslam'a ters düşmeden ortaya koyuyorlardı. Böylece son semavi dinin kendine has bir süsleme üslubu ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu tevhidi bir sanattır. İslam sanatı batı sanatının aksine soyuttur. İslam'daki Tevhid inancı ve anlayışından dolayı doğada görülen veya metafizik öğeler sanatçılar tarafından çoğu kez doğrudan verilmek yerine biçim değiştirerek soyut bir anlayışla nakşedilmiştir. Sanatkârların oluşturduğu bazı eserlerde süslemeden ziyade esere anlam kazandırmak ve izleyiciye belli mesajlar verilmek istenildiği anlaşılmaktadır. Böylece İslami inançlara aykırı düşmeden süsleme çalışmaları meydana getirilmiştir. Bu çalışmamızda da İslam süsleme sanatında görülen; renk, yıldızlar ve kandil motifinin sembolik anlamları üzerine, Kur'an-ı Kerim başta olmak üzere bazı tasavvufi metinlere dayanarak yapılan yeni yorumlara değinilecektir. Abstract The ornaments used in Islamic Art are different according to periods, geographies, nationalities and artists. Ornaments were made of stone, tile, brick, wood and pencil work materials. Geometrical ornamentations, star (heavenly) systems, naturalist or abstract floral motifs and figurative ornaments are used in decorative compositions. The decorative compositions that started with the Hellenistic and Sassanic influences of early decorating programs of Islam have also emerged with the spread of Islam from Central Asia to Andalusia and the incorporation of different nations into Islam, as well as new ornamental repertoires. These ornamental themes have religious content as well as sections from daily life and old beliefs. The craftsmen and the builders of every society were presenting their own likes and memories without contradicting Islam. Thus, the last heavenly religion appeared in its own style of ornamentation; It is an art of Tawhid. Islamic art is an abstract art unlike western art. Due to the belief and understanding of Tawhid in Islam, the nature or metaphysical items have been embroidered with an abstract understanding instead of being given directly by the artists often. It is understood that some of the works created by the craftsmen are intended to give meaning to it and to give certain messages without ornament. Thus, decorations were generated without contradicting Islamic beliefs.

This is a study of the Christianisation of the built environment: the physical manifestation of the transition from paganism to Christianity in the Greek East. The core of this thesis comprises an archaeological exploration of temple conversion in terms of structural mechanics, logistics, chronology and socio-political implications. 

This work provides a re-assessment of the fate of the temples – their deconsecration, destruction, preservation, abandonment and re-utilisation – by supplementing and questioning the historical record through reference to the wealth of available archaeological evidence.

The Ayoub district in Istanbul includes a lot of Islamic cemeteries that were constructed after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mohamed II. The Sultan was keen on building a mosque and a mausoleum for the great companion Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, who died while trying to open Constantinople in the Umayyad period. This area has become of high importance, so senior statesmen, writers, artists, and ordinary people were concerned with burying next to Abu Ayyub al-Ansari mausoleum. The cemetery of Zal Mahmoud Pasha is one of those cemeteries that contains a number of Islamic tombstones, the inscriptions of which are written in the Turkish and Arabic languages, and whose study is of great importance, as it is considered as a bridge between the past and the future. It is also useful to know the culture and arts of that period. This study aims to study, publish and document six graves' tombstones in the Turkish language. It is an archaeological and artistic study to identify the style and formula of such tombstones.

The International Congress of Turkish Arts, first held in Ankara in 1959, has been convened every four years without interruption in various countries namely Italy, United Kingdom, France, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Egypt, Switzerland, Netherlands and Jordan. It brings together Turkish arts scholars from various countries and provides platform for these scholars to present their works.
14 ICTA, realized in Paris under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey held in Collège de France. 163 have been presented at the Congress in Paris, of which 77 have been by participants from 20 countries.

Research concerning the cultural and artistic life of medieval Rūm has made welcome advances in recent years. However, much of this research analyses architecture, and scholarship is yet to fully address the production of illuminated Islamic manuscripts in the later medieval period – material which is often rich in visual and historical detail. This article seeks to partially address this gap by discussing one illuminated manuscript: a copy of the Persian-language 'Anīs al-Qulūb' by Burhān al-Dīn al-Anawī that was almost certainly produced in early fourteenth-century Konya. The article outlines the codicological and aesthetic aspects of the manuscript and analyses these findings in relation to other illuminated manuscripts from late medieval Konya. It demonstrates that, despite its relative neglect in Islamic art survey texts, illuminated manuscript production in Konya was a highly-developed art form with its own local conventions and links to other production centres of the Islamic arts of the book.

ÖZ: Ahşap tütekli örtü başta Orta Asya, Sibirya, Kafkasya ve Anadolu coğrafyaları olmak üzere oldukça geniş alanlara yayılmış bir mimari unsurdur. Geleneksel konut mimarisinin yanı sıra anıtsal ve dini mimaride de yaygın kullanımı bulunmaktadır. Şimdiye kadar yapılan çalışmalarda Kuzey Asya kökenli bir uygulama olduğu ve diğer bölgelere Orta Asya
üzerinden dağıldığı ifade edilmiştir. Ancak bu görüşün arkeolojik verilerin ışığında ve tarihi süreç içinde kronolojik gelişimi ortaya konulmamıştır. Bu çalışma arkeolojik veriler ışığında
kronolojik olarak ahşap tütekli örtüyü ele alarak söz konusu alana katkı sunmayıamaçlamaktadır. Arkeolojik kazılardan elde edilen bilgilere göre bilinen en erken tarihliahşap tütekli örtü uygulaması, Kuzey Kazakistan’da tespit edilmiştir. Kalkolitik döneme tarihlenen Botay yerleşiminde M.Ö. 3700-3500 yıllarına tarihlenen konutların ahşap tütekli
örtüye sahip olduğu kanıtlanmıştır. Botay’da M.Ö. 1500 yıllarına kadar aralıksız devam eden
yerleşime ait yüzlerce konutta bu örtü uygulanmaya devam edilmiştir. Arkeolojik veriler
ışığında Tunç Çağı’ndan itibaren bu örtü uygulamasının Botay’dan batıya Urallar ve
Karadeniz’in kuzeyi ile Kafkasya’ya, diğer yönden Altaylar ve Sibirya’nın derinliklerine,
güneye doğru ise Orta ve Güney Kazakistan’a, daha sonra oradan, Doğu Türkistan’a,
Özbekistan ve Tacikistan’a doğru yayıldığı anlaşılmıştır. Ahşap tütekli örtü, Kazakistan ve
Sibirya bölgelerinde yerel mimarinin geleneksel bir unsuru haline gelerek günümüze kadar
kültürel sürekliliğin bir göstergesi olarak uygulanmaktadır.----------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT: The wooden “lantern roof” is an architectural element spread over a wide area, particularly
in the Central Asia, Siberia, Caucasus and Anatolia. It has widespread use in monumental
and religious as well as vernacular architecture. In the studies carried out so far, it is stated
that “lantern roof” is an application originating from the North Asia and distributed to the
other regions through Central Asia. However, chronological development of the lantern roof,
has not been addressed within the context of archaeologic data and historical process. The aim of current study is to contribute to the area by discussing the development of wooden
lantern roof chronologically in the light of archaeological data. According to the information
obtained from archaeological excavations, the earliest known wooden lantern roof was
determined in North Kazakhstan. It has been revealed that the pit-houses at the Chalcolithic
Botai settlement dated to 3700-3500 BC had lantern roofs. This roof technique had been
continuously applied until 1500 BC in more than hundred houses revealed at Botai. Starting
from the Bronze Age the lantern roof spread from Botai to the Central, Eastern and Southern
Kazakhstan, through the Altai Mountains to the depths of Siberia, in the west to the Ural area,
through the Caucasus to the Black Sea region and later through the Eastern and Southern
Kazakhstan to the Eastern Turkistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The lantern roof has become
a traditional element of vernacular architecture in Kazakhstan and Siberia regions and has
been used as an indicator of cultural continuity until nowadays.

This paper addresses the issue of how the Ottomans perceived and interacted with the natural environment, pursuing an increasing scale from the private garden to parks and then on to rural and forest areas. Throughout their history, the Ottomans conceived the natural environment in a rather pragmatic manner. Being a common topos in the pre-industrial era, the environment’s foremost use had been to sustain the basic needs of the agricultural society. When it comes to aesthetics, the Ottoman Turks seem to be fond of naturalism, which in the 18th century reached a level of adoration of nature in visual arts. Finally, in the last century of the Ottoman empire the environment was approached also as a scientific subject.

Glass has been a means to express feelings, thoughts and values in every society and in the course of time has become a symbolic product that can give an idea about the cultural values of the society it belongs to. We do not have exact records and historical documents to give us a detailed information about the development of the Turkish art of glass-making by years. However, we know about the recent works of glass which can partly be documented. When we think about the traditional Turkish glass-making, we can see that there is a limited numbers of works and these works reflect the characteristics of the period they were produced in as a symbol of Ottoman culture and art.