Illustrated novel of a family on Mount Latmos

Heraclia Latmos was one of the beautiful coastal cities of Karia, resting against the Latmos (Beşparmak) mountains and facing the Aegean. 

While the alluvial silt carried by the Greater Menderes River resulted in coastal towns like Miletus and Pyrenees being left 30 kilometers from the sea, they turned Latmos into a lake city called Bafa. (A) 

A

When carrying out surface surveys in the city and its vicinity at the beginning of the 1990s, German archaeologist Dr. Anneliese Peschlow-Bindokat (B) headed toward the rock paintings in the caves of Göktepe, which beekeeper Yaşar Beşparmak claimed to have seen.

 
B

For more than a decade, Peschlow scanned each cave and each stone (C) on a field of 200 square kilometers in the region. She found various cave photos every summer. 

C

Among 160 groups of rock paintings, which had various depictions, she determined 500 paintings made by humans (D-E-F). She photographed each of them, transferring all the photos to drawings.  

D

E

F

The paintings that date back 8,000-6,000 years ago were made using red paint, which was made of a mixture of iron oxide and water. The paint was applied to stone niches with fingers or other tools. 

The concepts of "human" and "family" have especially drawn our attention in Peschlow's magnificent findings. Compared to stickman-like, long-haired men, which were portrayed from the front, all women were portrayed from the side.

The women were depicted with full hips like the "Neolithic" goddesses in Konya's Çatalhöyük and Burdur's Hacılar. Various ornaments on their sides had similar features to the ornaments from the Çatalhöyük-Hacılar era. 

The...