The Beşparmak Dağları, known as “Latmos” in antiquity, is one of the most fascinating and archaeologically richest regions in western Turkey. As early as prehistoric times the Latmos was already revered as a sacred mountain in Anatolia. Upon its peak the Old Anatolian weather god together with a local mountain deity were worshipped. The mountain peak was the centre of weather and fertility rituals. Despite socio-cultural changes that transformed religious concepts, the cultic tradition there continued into Ottoman times. The beauty of the rock landscape and the cultural monuments that it inspired are now greatly endangered by increased stone quarrying in the area. For several decades feldspar, a rock-forming mineral used for the production of ceramics, glass and sanitary installations world-wide, has been quarried in the Beşparmak. This exploitation is causing the drastic metamorphosis of the Latmos from a sacred mountain into a source for bathroom installations! Tax exemptions and lax mining regulations, especially in the past few years, have enabled quarrying feldspar to expand dramatically, so that sites are threatened of the most important group of archaeological monuments on the Latmos: the prehistoric rock paintings.Mavi Boncuk | Destruction[1] of hundreds of ancient rock paintings depicting spring feasts and wedding ceremonies, first discovered by German archaeologist Anneliese Peshlow-Bindokat[2] near the shore of Bafa Lake, could mean a loss of heritage.
Anneliese Peshlow-Bindokat[2] discovered the rock paintings on Mount Latmos, also known as the Besparmak Mountain, in 1949. They are considered the most important prehistoric archaeological findings discovered in recent years in Anatolia. The rock paintings date back to the late Neolithic Age and the Chalcolithic Age.
Suratkaya Inscriptions
In year 2000, a group of lightly carved hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions were discovered on the back wall of a rock shelter by archeologist Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat. The location known as Suratkaya is about 1000 meter high in the Beşparmak Mountain (ancient Latmos), near the lake of Latmos (ancient Gulf of Latmos). There are 5 groups of signs distributed over a 12 by 4 meter rock surface. The left most group of the signs mentions the Land of Mira, while others appear to be names of some princes. The largest and the most clear one of the signs is the 5th group which includes a name that has been read as Kupaya. This was suggested to be the same person as Mira king Kupanta-Kurunta, whose name may have been in Karabel. However the name is accompanied with the title "Great Prince" which is very unusual considering that even the actual princes of the Hittite great kings did not use such a title. It is known that Kupanta-Kurunta was the adopted son of Mira king Mashuiluwa, and the latter was married to a Hittite princess, a daughter of Suppiluliuma I. If the Kupanta-Kurunta association can be accepted, the inscription may date to end of 14th century BCE.
[1] If the exploitation of feldspar is not curbed immediately, a landscape unique to Anatolia and the Aegean will be lost forever. The Latmos is an Open-Air Museum that covers with its cultural heritage a time span of almost 8000 years. It is also a geo-park, characterised by fantastic rock formations that are rarely found anywhere else in the world, and the magnificent pine forests (Pinus pinea) are the greatest of their kind in Turkey. However, now their number has been severely cut back.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) the Beşparmak with its rare plants is one of the 122 important plant areas of Turkey. Yet, 22 species are seriously endangered: 2 according to general, 6 to European and 14 to national standards. 2 of them are endemic. The Comperia comperiana, member of the orchid family, and the Cyclamen mirabile should be conserved, following the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats of 1979, which Turkey - among other countries - signed in agreement.
Among the endangered wildlife of the mountains special mention should be made of the wild cat (Caracal caracal), one of the five species of wild cats native in Turkey, and the white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla).
[2] Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat, born Anneliese Bindokat (born December 8, 1940 in Dusseldorf) is a German classical archaeologist. Their main research led them through to the archaeological remains of Latmos Mountains in western Turkey.
Works:
Demeter und Persephone in der attischen Kunst des sechsten bis vierten Jahrhunderts. In: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 87 (1972) S. 60-157
Die Steinbrüche von Selinunt. Die Cave di Cusa und die Cave di Barone. von Zabern, Mainz 1990, ISBN 3-8053-1084-6.
Der Latmos. Eine unbekannte Gebirgslandschaft an der türkischen Westküste. von Zabern, Mainz 1996 (Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie/Sonderhefte der Antiken Welt), ISBN 3-8053-1994-0.
Frühe Menschenbilder. Die prähistorischen Felsmalereien des Latmos-Gebirges (Westtürkei). von Zabern, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-8053-3001-4.
Die karische Stadt Latmos. de Gruyter, Berlin und New York 2005 (Feldforschungen im Latmos, Bd. 6), ISBN 3-11-018238-6.
Herakleia am Latmos. Stadt und Umgebung; eine karische Gebirgslandschaft. Homer Kitabevi, Istanbul 2005. ISBN 975-8293-72-9
