This carved Ottoman marble turban was once the headstone for the tomb of a member of the imperial Ottoman family or a high dignitary, such as a vizier. It would have been positioned at the head of a gable-topped stone bier most likely situated in a domed, open mausoleum, or it may have surmounted an inscribed tombstone. Ottoman society was rigidly structured, and all members of the civil, military, and religious establishments were identified by their headgear, an ordering that continued even in death: male tombs used stone representations of headgear to signal rank, while women were represented by carved flowers.