Latmus
Encyclopedia
Beşparmak Mountains is a ridge of many spurs running in an east-west direction along the north shore of the former Latmian Gulf on the coast of Caria
, which became part of Hellenised Ionia
. The city of Latmus, located on the south slopes of Mount Latmus 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) east of Miletus
, was originally a port on the narrow gulf, as reported by Strabo
. He also states that Latmus is the same as Mount Phthires in the Catalogue of Trojans.
The mouth of the Gulf of Latmus began to fill with sediment from the Maeander river, which emptied into it, even in classical antiquity. By 300 CE Lake Bafa
had formed behind the estuary marshes. It gradually diminished in salinity and would now be fresh water except that canals to the Aegean introduce a saline element. The ecology remains a brackish-water one and the lake has been made a bird sanctuary. Its area of 7 square kilometre with a maximum depth of 25 metres (82 ft) still extends from the base of the west spur of Mount Latmus, although, having lost its port, the ancient medium-sized town of Herakleia (Latmus) has declined in size and facilities to the small village of Kapikiri.
Beşparmak looms far beyond Kapikiri to the east for a total distance of about 35 kilometres (21.7 mi), 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) wide. It is deeply eroded by various streams into spurs. The spur that can be seen from Kapikiri is one Dağ, or "mountain", but the entire ridge with all the spurs is Dağlar, "mountains", in the sense of "range." The ancient writers generally recognized the western spur over the gulf as Latmus, but Strabo reports that the ridge east was called Mount Grium and extended through Caria
.
The morphotectonic
configuration of Anatolia
and the Aegean
is a result of continental drift movements
associated with the Alpine orogeny
, a zone of mountain-building caused by the collision of the African
and Arabian Plate
s with the Eurasian Plate
. The former have been slipping under the latter compressing and lifting the edge and creating zones of metamorphic rock
from previous layers of sedimentary rock
. These zones in the Aegean are represented by a number of massif
s that were originally buried by crustal subduction
: the Rhodope
, Kazdag, Menderes, Cycladic Massif
and Crete.
For various geologic reasons, modelled differently by different geologists, the zone of compression in the Aegean became one of extension
: the region widened and dome-like or ovoid massifs were uncovered, or exhumed, from the subduction zones and rose by isostasy
. In the case of the Menderes Massif, which is 40000 km² (15,444.1 sq mi), the reasons are better known due to geologic research in central Turkey. Anatolia is a triangular block created by the intersection in central Turkey of the North and East Anatolian faults. As the northward-pressing Arabian Plate pushes against this wedge the latter slips to the west but the broad end opens along fault lines like the rays of a fan, extending the massif to the north-northeast and south. This is being called a bivergent (diverges in two places) model.
The entire massif is divided or nearly so by a karst topography
into three sections: the Gordes Massif north of the Alasehir or Gediz
graben
, the Cine Massif south of the Büyük Menderes graben and the Central Massif between. The latter is split like a forked tongue by the Küçük Menderes Graben into the Kuzey Detachment to the north and the Guney Detachment to the south. Mycale
is part of the Guney Detachment, while Latmus is in the Cine Massif.
The Graben are low-key rift valley
s. There have been some small intrusions of magma
into the graben appearing now as granito-diorite outcrops. Dates on thin sections of monazite
obtained from the earliest exhumed rocks of the graben suggest "... that the Cenozoic extension in the Gordes Massif, and possibly the entire Menderes Massif, might have begun in the Late Oligocene." Despite the rare intrusions, the massif is not of volcanic origin. Most of the visible layer is light, metamorphic rock of various kinds, especially marble
and schist
s.
Except for alluvial fan
s of impermeable clay
the rock is highly porous due to a network of small faults, which dips into the warmer regions below the surface. Warm springs and vapors are common, giving the appearance of volcanic activity. The ancients cross-culturally viewed these phenomena as being caused by divinities, which rock-paintings indicate they worshipped. The north slopes of Latmus are subject to heavy and damaging mudslides, which also would have contributed to the idea that it was a god.
as the site of the cave where Selene
's consort Endymion
lies forever young and beautiful in blissful sleep.
The paintings, which are done entirely in red, depict mainly social and religious scenes. Different representations of the mountain include a dragon, indicating that it was worshipped as a god; that is, Latmus was a sacred mountain at least as early as the Early Bronze Age.
A 2004 palynological study
of two sediment cores
taken from Lake Bafa
near Kapikiri (Baf S1) and from the western depth (Baf S6) suggests a habitation sequence of the Büyük Menderes River valley and the shores of Latmus that appears to support the early history of the region. Baf S1, containing the oldest sediment, is layered in four subsections, the first carbon dated
to before 4000 BCE.
From the pollen of subsection 1 a model can be constructed of a lightly grazed climax forest
of deciduous
oak and pine: 27.6% Quercus pubescens, 14.6% Pinus and lesser concentrations of Isoetes histrix
. Low levels of the pasture weed, Plantago lanceolata
, indicate a low level of grazing by animals belonging to indigenes
that lived somewhere else. There is no evidence that they settled or grew crops in the region.
Subsection 2, dated 1240/1126 BCE to 710/558 BCE, represents a settlement from the Beyşehir
Occupation Phase of southern Anatolia, dated there 3500/3000 BP to 1500 BP. It has a specific palynological profile of "secondary anthropogenic indicators;" that is, not pollen of cultivated plants but of other species growing on cultivated land: certain percentages of Plantago lanceolata
, Sanguisorba minor, Pistacia
, Platanus
, Quercus calliprinos and Juniperus.
The Lake Bafu profile shows the replacement of deciduous oak and pine with maquis
species: Phillyrea
, Cistus
, Ericaceae
; fruit trees: Olea
, Castanea
; and farm weeds: Plantago lanceolata and Juniperus. Carbon in the sediment suggests the forest was cleared by slash and burn
. This period corresponds to the settlement of the Carians
in the area, who apparently moved in from southern Anatolia. There is a semi-legendary tradition that they subdued another Pre-Hellenic people, the Leleges
, but the evidence is not precise enough to say if the indigenes were all or partly Leleges. As the Carians worshipped Endymion
, he may have been brought in at this time.
Subsection 3 reveals an abandonment of the cleared areas, the decline of Olea
, and the spread of Pistacia
, Pinus brutia and Quercus coccifera (instead of deciduous oak) on formerly cleared land and in the maquis. As this is the time of the rise of Ionia
, the palynological scenario suggests a movement of population from the land to the newly settled or expanded big cities of the Ionian League
. Subsection 4 and Baf S6 go on to catalogue the return of the fruit trees, re-clearing the land for pasture, planting of rye and other cereals, ultimate destabilization of the soil through over-use, denudation and acceleration of sedimentation. After the sealing off of the bay to form the lake, population and land use declined to their current low levels around Latmus, but the river valley is cultivated.
With the expansion of Greek culture, Latmus became a member of the Delian League
in the fifth century BCE. In the fourth century the Persian satrap (a Carian) Mausolus of Halicarnassus captured the city by a ruse and fortified it with a circuit wall; under Hellenising influence the city was refounded a kilometer to the west on a rectilinear grid system as Heracleia under Latmos, dedicated to the hero Heracles
. The modern village of Kapıkırı is built among the ruins.
The temenos
, or sanctuary of Endymion, with pre-Greek origins, was rebuilt in Hellenistic times
, and may still be seen on a rise to the south of the ancient city. The building faces the southwest; it has a cella
with a horseshoe-shaped rear wall partly cut out of the bedrock, with an entrance hall and columned forecourt.
A temple of Athena at Heracleia reveals its earlier foundation by not being aligned with the Hellenistic street pattern.
In Byzantine
times, the mountain, known as Latros, became a flourishing monastic centre. According to tradition, the first monastic community was established by Sinaite monks fleeing from the Muslim conquests
in the 7th century. By the early 10th century, there were three monasteries, and by 1222, the monastic community of Latros numbered 11 monasteries. It began declining however towards the century's end due to increasing Turkish attacks, and disappeared in the 14th century. Endymion was Christianised
as a mystic saint, whose coffin was opened annually and whose bones emitted musical tones and the site drew pilgrims. In the ninth century, Joseph the Hymnographer
was tonsured in the monastery of Latmus.
Caria
Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
, which became part of Hellenised Ionia
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
. The city of Latmus, located on the south slopes of Mount Latmus 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) east of Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
, was originally a port on the narrow gulf, as reported by Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
. He also states that Latmus is the same as Mount Phthires in the Catalogue of Trojans.
The mouth of the Gulf of Latmus began to fill with sediment from the Maeander river, which emptied into it, even in classical antiquity. By 300 CE Lake Bafa
Lake Bafa
Lake Bafa or Lake Bafa Nature Park is a lake and a nature reserve situated in southwestern Turkey, part of it within the boundaries of Milas district of Muğla Province and the northern part within Aydın Province's Söke district...
had formed behind the estuary marshes. It gradually diminished in salinity and would now be fresh water except that canals to the Aegean introduce a saline element. The ecology remains a brackish-water one and the lake has been made a bird sanctuary. Its area of 7 square kilometre with a maximum depth of 25 metres (82 ft) still extends from the base of the west spur of Mount Latmus, although, having lost its port, the ancient medium-sized town of Herakleia (Latmus) has declined in size and facilities to the small village of Kapikiri.
Beşparmak looms far beyond Kapikiri to the east for a total distance of about 35 kilometres (21.7 mi), 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) wide. It is deeply eroded by various streams into spurs. The spur that can be seen from Kapikiri is one Dağ, or "mountain", but the entire ridge with all the spurs is Dağlar, "mountains", in the sense of "range." The ancient writers generally recognized the western spur over the gulf as Latmus, but Strabo reports that the ridge east was called Mount Grium and extended through Caria
Caria
Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
.
Geology
Morphotectonics
Morphotectonics refers to the study of short- and long-term superficial evidences of tectonic activity. The surface expression of endogenous mechanism driving the tectonic activity is always represented by relative movements such as uplifting, subsidence and translation of the crust...
configuration of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
and the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
is a result of continental drift movements
Plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
associated with the Alpine orogeny
Alpine orogeny
The Alpine orogeny is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic and Tertiary that formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt...
, a zone of mountain-building caused by the collision of the African
African Plate
The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.-Boundaries:...
and Arabian Plate
Arabian Plate
The Arabian Plate is one of three tectonic plates which have been moving northward over millions of years and colliding with the Eurasian Plate...
s with the Eurasian Plate
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia...
. The former have been slipping under the latter compressing and lifting the edge and creating zones of metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...
from previous layers of sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
. These zones in the Aegean are represented by a number of massif
Massif
In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole...
s that were originally buried by crustal subduction
Subduction
In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...
: the Rhodope
Rhodope Mountains
The Rhodopes are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Its highest peak, Golyam Perelik , is the seventh highest Bulgarian mountain...
, Kazdag, Menderes, Cycladic Massif
Cycladic Massif
The Cycladic Massif is a Miocene high-pressure orogenic segment located in the Aegean Sea underlying the Cyclades. Initially, the Massif was a single island which began to break apart due to the tectonic activities of the subduction of the African plate under the Eurasian plate during the late...
and Crete.
For various geologic reasons, modelled differently by different geologists, the zone of compression in the Aegean became one of extension
Rift
In geology, a rift or chasm is a place where the Earth's crust and lithosphere are being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics....
: the region widened and dome-like or ovoid massifs were uncovered, or exhumed, from the subduction zones and rose by isostasy
Isostasy
Isostasy is a term used in geology to refer to the state of gravitational equilibrium between the earth's lithosphere and asthenosphere such that the tectonic plates "float" at an elevation which depends on their thickness and density. This concept is invoked to explain how different topographic...
. In the case of the Menderes Massif, which is 40000 km² (15,444.1 sq mi), the reasons are better known due to geologic research in central Turkey. Anatolia is a triangular block created by the intersection in central Turkey of the North and East Anatolian faults. As the northward-pressing Arabian Plate pushes against this wedge the latter slips to the west but the broad end opens along fault lines like the rays of a fan, extending the massif to the north-northeast and south. This is being called a bivergent (diverges in two places) model.
The entire massif is divided or nearly so by a karst topography
Karst topography
Karst topography is a geologic formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite, but has also been documented for weathering resistant rocks like quartzite given the right conditions.Due to subterranean drainage, there...
into three sections: the Gordes Massif north of the Alasehir or Gediz
Gediz River
-Name:The ancient name of the river was Hermos or Hermus.The name of the river Gediz may be related to the Lydian proper name Cadys; Gediz is also the name of a town near the river's sources. The name "Gediz" may also be encountered as a male name in Turkey.-Ancient geography:The Hermos separated...
graben
Graben
In geology, a graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. Graben is German for ditch. Graben is used for both the singular and plural....
, the Cine Massif south of the Büyük Menderes graben and the Central Massif between. The latter is split like a forked tongue by the Küçük Menderes Graben into the Kuzey Detachment to the north and the Guney Detachment to the south. Mycale
Mycale
Mycale, also Mykale and Mycali , called Samsun Daği and Dilek Daği in modern Turkey, is a mountain on the west coast of central Anatolia in Turkey, north of the mouth of the Maeander and divided from the Greek island of Samos by the 1300 metre wide Samos Strait...
is part of the Guney Detachment, while Latmus is in the Cine Massif.
The Graben are low-key rift valley
Rift valley
A rift valley is a linear-shaped lowland between highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. This action is manifest as crustal extension, a spreading apart of the surface which is subsequently further deepened by the forces of erosion...
s. There have been some small intrusions of magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
into the graben appearing now as granito-diorite outcrops. Dates on thin sections of monazite
Monazite
Monazite is a reddish-brown phosphate mineral containing rare earth metals. It occurs usually in small isolated crystals. There are actually at least four different kinds of monazite, depending on relative elemental composition of the mineral:...
obtained from the earliest exhumed rocks of the graben suggest "... that the Cenozoic extension in the Gordes Massif, and possibly the entire Menderes Massif, might have begun in the Late Oligocene." Despite the rare intrusions, the massif is not of volcanic origin. Most of the visible layer is light, metamorphic rock of various kinds, especially marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
and schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
s.
Except for alluvial fan
Alluvial fan
An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope is called a bajada, or compound alluvial...
s of impermeable clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
the rock is highly porous due to a network of small faults, which dips into the warmer regions below the surface. Warm springs and vapors are common, giving the appearance of volcanic activity. The ancients cross-culturally viewed these phenomena as being caused by divinities, which rock-paintings indicate they worshipped. The north slopes of Latmus are subject to heavy and damaging mudslides, which also would have contributed to the idea that it was a god.
Mythology
Latmus appears in Greek mythologyGreek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
as the site of the cave where Selene
Selene
In Greek mythology, Selene was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon"....
's consort Endymion
Endymion (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Endymion , was variously a handsome Aeolian shepherd or hunter or a king who ruled and was said to reside at Olympia in Elis, but he was also said to reside and was venerated on Mount Latmus in Caria, on the west coast of Asia Minor....
lies forever young and beautiful in blissful sleep.
Prehistory
Beginning in 1994 about 170 rock paintings have been discovered in shallow caves and overhangs near springs at the foot of Mount Latmus overlooking Lake Bafa. They came to light in a survey conducted by Anneliese Peschlow of the German Archaeology Institute. Peschlow dates the earliest to about 6000 BCE and believes from other findings that the region has been continuously occupied since then. She is currently working to get Mount Latmus reserved as a national park.The paintings, which are done entirely in red, depict mainly social and religious scenes. Different representations of the mountain include a dragon, indicating that it was worshipped as a god; that is, Latmus was a sacred mountain at least as early as the Early Bronze Age.
A 2004 palynological study
Palynology
Palynology is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen, spores, orbicules, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks and sediments...
of two sediment cores
Core sample
A core sample is a cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, for example sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube called a core drill. The hole made for the core sample is called the "core hole". A...
taken from Lake Bafa
Lake Bafa
Lake Bafa or Lake Bafa Nature Park is a lake and a nature reserve situated in southwestern Turkey, part of it within the boundaries of Milas district of Muğla Province and the northern part within Aydın Province's Söke district...
near Kapikiri (Baf S1) and from the western depth (Baf S6) suggests a habitation sequence of the Büyük Menderes River valley and the shores of Latmus that appears to support the early history of the region. Baf S1, containing the oldest sediment, is layered in four subsections, the first carbon dated
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
to before 4000 BCE.
From the pollen of subsection 1 a model can be constructed of a lightly grazed climax forest
Climax community
In ecology, a climax community, or climatic climax community, is a biological community of plants and animals which, through the process of ecological succession — the development of vegetation in an area over time — has reached a steady state. This equilibrium occurs because the climax community...
of deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
oak and pine: 27.6% Quercus pubescens, 14.6% Pinus and lesser concentrations of Isoetes histrix
Isoetes histrix
Isoetes histrix is an aquatic pteridophyte native to the Mediterranean region, northwestern Africa, and the coasts of western Europe northwest to Cornwall. It occurs mainly in temporarily wet habitats, otherwise called vernal pools....
. Low levels of the pasture weed, Plantago lanceolata
Plantago lanceolata
Plantago lanceolata is a species of genus Plantago known by the common names ribwort plantain, English plantain, and narrowleaf plantain. It is a common weed of cultivated land....
, indicate a low level of grazing by animals belonging to indigenes
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
that lived somewhere else. There is no evidence that they settled or grew crops in the region.
Subsection 2, dated 1240/1126 BCE to 710/558 BCE, represents a settlement from the Beyşehir
Beysehir
Beyşehir is a large town and district of Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. The town is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Beyşehir and is marked to the west and the southwest by the steep lines and forests of the Taurus Mountains, while a fertile plain, an extension...
Occupation Phase of southern Anatolia, dated there 3500/3000 BP to 1500 BP. It has a specific palynological profile of "secondary anthropogenic indicators;" that is, not pollen of cultivated plants but of other species growing on cultivated land: certain percentages of Plantago lanceolata
Plantago lanceolata
Plantago lanceolata is a species of genus Plantago known by the common names ribwort plantain, English plantain, and narrowleaf plantain. It is a common weed of cultivated land....
, Sanguisorba minor, Pistacia
Pistacia
Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It contains ten to twenty species that are native to Africa and Eurasia from the Canary Islands, whole Africa, and southern Europe, warm and semi-desert areas across Asia, and also North America from Mexico to warm and...
, Platanus
Platanus
Platanus is a small genus of trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae....
, Quercus calliprinos and Juniperus.
The Lake Bafu profile shows the replacement of deciduous oak and pine with maquis
Maquis shrubland
thumb|220px|Low Maquis in Corsica.220px|thumb|High macchia in Sardinia.Maquis or macchia is a shrubland biome in the Mediterranean region, typically consisting of densely growing evergreen shrubs such as holm oak, tree heath, strawberry tree, sage, juniper, buckthorn, spurge olive and myrtle...
species: Phillyrea
Phillyrea
Phillyrea is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, the Canary Islands and Madeira....
, Cistus
Cistus
Cistus is a genus of flowering plants in the rockrose family Cistaceae, containing about 20 species . They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal through to the Middle East, and also on the Canary Islands...
, Ericaceae
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae, commonly known as the heath or heather family, is a group of mostly calcifuge flowering plants. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants...
; fruit trees: Olea
Olea
Olea is a genus of about 40 species in the family Oleaceae, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australasia. They are evergreen trees and shrubs, with small, opposite, entire leaves...
, Castanea
Chestnut
Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...
; and farm weeds: Plantago lanceolata and Juniperus. Carbon in the sediment suggests the forest was cleared by slash and burn
Slash and burn
Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique which involves cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically uses little technology or other tools. It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture, and of transhumance livestock...
. This period corresponds to the settlement of the Carians
Carians
The Carians were the ancient inhabitants of Caria in southwest Anatolia.-Historical accounts:It is not clear when the Carians enter into history. The definition is dependent on corresponding Caria and the Carians to the "Karkiya" or "Karkisa" mentioned in the Hittite records...
in the area, who apparently moved in from southern Anatolia. There is a semi-legendary tradition that they subdued another Pre-Hellenic people, the Leleges
Leleges
The Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia , who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes emerged. The distinction between the Leleges and the Carians is unclear. According to Homer the Leleges were a distinct Anatolian tribe Homer...
, but the evidence is not precise enough to say if the indigenes were all or partly Leleges. As the Carians worshipped Endymion
Endymion (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Endymion , was variously a handsome Aeolian shepherd or hunter or a king who ruled and was said to reside at Olympia in Elis, but he was also said to reside and was venerated on Mount Latmus in Caria, on the west coast of Asia Minor....
, he may have been brought in at this time.
Subsection 3 reveals an abandonment of the cleared areas, the decline of Olea
Olea
Olea is a genus of about 40 species in the family Oleaceae, native to warm temperate and tropical regions of southern Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australasia. They are evergreen trees and shrubs, with small, opposite, entire leaves...
, and the spread of Pistacia
Pistacia
Pistacia is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It contains ten to twenty species that are native to Africa and Eurasia from the Canary Islands, whole Africa, and southern Europe, warm and semi-desert areas across Asia, and also North America from Mexico to warm and...
, Pinus brutia and Quercus coccifera (instead of deciduous oak) on formerly cleared land and in the maquis. As this is the time of the rise of Ionia
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
, the palynological scenario suggests a movement of population from the land to the newly settled or expanded big cities of the Ionian League
Ionian League
The Ionian League , also called the Panionic League, was a confederation formed at the end of the Meliac War in the mid-7th century BC comprising twelve Ionian cities .These were listed by Herodotus as*Miletus, Myus, and...
. Subsection 4 and Baf S6 go on to catalogue the return of the fruit trees, re-clearing the land for pasture, planting of rye and other cereals, ultimate destabilization of the soil through over-use, denudation and acceleration of sedimentation. After the sealing off of the bay to form the lake, population and land use declined to their current low levels around Latmus, but the river valley is cultivated.
History
Delian League
The Delian League, founded in circa 477 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, members numbering between 150 to 173, under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco–Persian Wars...
in the fifth century BCE. In the fourth century the Persian satrap (a Carian) Mausolus of Halicarnassus captured the city by a ruse and fortified it with a circuit wall; under Hellenising influence the city was refounded a kilometer to the west on a rectilinear grid system as Heracleia under Latmos, dedicated to the hero Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
. The modern village of Kapıkırı is built among the ruins.
The temenos
Temenos
Temenos is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct: The Pythian race-course is called a temenos, the sacred valley of the Nile is the ...
, or sanctuary of Endymion, with pre-Greek origins, was rebuilt in Hellenistic times
Hellenistic civilization
Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BCE to about 146 BCE...
, and may still be seen on a rise to the south of the ancient city. The building faces the southwest; it has a cella
Cella
A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...
with a horseshoe-shaped rear wall partly cut out of the bedrock, with an entrance hall and columned forecourt.
A temple of Athena at Heracleia reveals its earlier foundation by not being aligned with the Hellenistic street pattern.
In Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
times, the mountain, known as Latros, became a flourishing monastic centre. According to tradition, the first monastic community was established by Sinaite monks fleeing from the Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests
Muslim conquests also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began with the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Muslim power.They...
in the 7th century. By the early 10th century, there were three monasteries, and by 1222, the monastic community of Latros numbered 11 monasteries. It began declining however towards the century's end due to increasing Turkish attacks, and disappeared in the 14th century. Endymion was Christianised
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
as a mystic saint, whose coffin was opened annually and whose bones emitted musical tones and the site drew pilgrims. In the ninth century, Joseph the Hymnographer
Joseph the Hymnographer
Joseph the Hymnographer was a monk of the ninth century. He is one of the greatest liturgical poets and hymnographers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is also known for his confession of the Orthodox Faith in opposition to Iconoclasm. He is called "the sweet-voiced nightingale of the Church".He...
was tonsured in the monastery of Latmus.