Palimpsesting martyrs: Graves of shahids within the sedimentations and erosions of time in Banja Luka and Zenica

Abstract

In this paper I analyse two šehid turbe (mausolea) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one located in Banja Luka and the other in Zenica. I present and interpret how these cultural sediments, with their religious and political connotations, narratives and symbols, eroded over time, re-interpreted and transformed, and how top-down political and social contexts influenced the local micro-contexts of the turbe. I analyse as palimpsest processes the ways in which cultural sedimentations and erosions of sacred religious graves are affected by the changes in political, religious and national dominance in the local context, and thus how within these changes the identity of a site may erode, or be displaced by new sediments. This process both reflects and embodies the spatial dimension of urban layers that change the identification of particular parts of the city, but it also reflects the broader changes in an urban landscape. I argue that changes and/or continuation of the political dominance of ethno-religious and/or national communities, can have a direct impact on interpretations and/or re-interpretations of particular sites within the urban context, in this case religious sacred graves. This influence can work as a palimpsest, covering the former layer so that it can change the identity of a site
completely, down to the level of the toponym and its practical and symbolic functions and meanings; or, depending on the local scenarios, leaving the older layer visible, but making it hard to detect which layer is older.