Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turkish Studies (Elektronik), cilt.16, sa.7, ss.237-248, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)
The article intends to dwell on some of the churches and complexes in the Soğanlı Valley, to focus on their locations in the settlement and the burials in or around them, with the aim of making suggestions on their usage and in which way they expanded within a certain time period. The monuments mentioned in the article are the churches 26, 27 and 27a, the Complex of St. Barbara, the churches 29, 30, 31 and 32, Yılanlı Chapel, two churches of the Complex of Karabaş, the churches 1 and 2, the churches of the Kubbeli Complex, and the six burial cones to the east of the Geyikli Monastery. Some of the churches without direct attachment to any of the complexes and which had intensive or limited burials do not bear wall paintings or inscriptions to date or compare them. Still, it should not be completely ruled out that such churches had organic and liturgical connections with religious and domestic complexes. At the end of the study, it seems reasonable to suggest that the valley housed churches primarily carved out to house the burial of a family member, which later developed both into a cemetery and a family church of a domestic complex; churches expanded around a solemn figure, where his/her grave ensured the church and its religious community to carry on its presence; churches expanded around an ascetic or a simple villager, which turned into a complex used by the villagers and for their burials.