Rooted Heritage is a 12-month documentary and digital archiving project designed to preserve Anatolia’s endangered oral traditions by recording the stories and knowledge of their last living bearers. Implemented across Artvin, Sivas, Mardin, and Kırşehir, the project focuses on cultural representatives aged between 35 and 95, ensuring that this living heritage is documented and passed on to future generations.

Anatolia’s rich cultural landscape has long been sustained through oral transmission, with rituals, production practices, and collective memory carried across generations. However, migration, urbanization, and the weakening of intergenerational ties now threaten many of these traditions with disappearance. Rooted Heritage responds to this risk by documenting culture through the voices and practices of those who still carry it.

The project structures its narrative around the four elements of nature—fire, water, earth, and air—each symbolizing a distinct aspect of Anatolian cultural life. By linking each element to a specific city and tradition, the documentary series creates a strong visual and narrative framework, emphasizing culture as a living, breathing continuum rather than a static record.

Rooted Heritage aims not only to preserve culture but to keep it alive through collective awareness. All recorded materials and documentary outputs will be archived on the Rooted Heritage digital platform, making them accessible for both academic research and public engagement. In doing so, the project ensures that Anatolia’s endangered oral heritage is safely transferred into the digital future.