Reconsideration of Orhon Inscriptions in the context of Cultural Memory of Turkish Society: The Body and Memory of Stone

Abstract

This paper aims to deal with the Orhon Inscriptions among the concepts and debates on cultural memory for the purpose of 'remembering', 'adaptation', 'updating' and 'refunctionalising' through the television documentary Time Traveller: Following the Steps of the Turks. What do the inscriptions tell us about today? What does deducing, analysing and developing a methodology for this provide to the national heritage under the titles of past, identity, belonging and memory? In this article, accordingly, cultural memory questions and suggestions are offered through the Orhon Inscriptions. Documents and documentaries, without doubt, are instruments of interpreting the past and projecting the future. This research is conceptual as well as methodological. In this respect, a minimal cultural memory glossary is fictionalised and thus a sort of conceptual ground is generated.