Turkey launches digital inventory of Ottoman‑Islamic tombstones in Çorum

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, through its Directorate General of Cultural Heritage and Museums, has started a national inventory project to record Turkish‑Islamic period tombstones and inscriptions in the province of Çorum.

A nine‑person specialist team led by Associate Professor Dr. Oktay Gündoğdu of Hitit University’s Faculty of Theology began field work at the Hıdırlık and Ulu cemeteries. The team reads Ottoman‑Turkish and Arabic texts on the stones, photographs, measures, and records GPS coordinates.

The programme aims to digitize roughly 2,000‑3,000 inscriptions over about two years, gradually extending to all district and village cemeteries in Çorum. The data will be entered into a dedicated software platform and made publicly accessible, preserving the cultural memory of past societies.