Five layers
Anatolian Heritage
Bithyné carries five cultural layers, not one. The plant practice of Anatolia did not begin with the Ottomans — it reaches back through Byzantine monasteries, Seljuk caravanserais, Hittite tablets, all the way to the Old Turkic steppe.
N° I
Old Turkic
Steppe roots before Anatolia
Felt, undyed wool, tamga marks. The Central Asian root of Turkic culture, before the migration into Anatolia.
N° II
Hittite
Plant lore in cuneiform
Bronze Age. Hattuša. Kamrusepa — the goddess of healing through plants. 3.500 years of unbroken practice.
N° III
Seljuk
Konya, Mevlana, the middle path
Sufi tradition, geometric ornament, the language of return and inwardness — Vuslat.
N° IV
Ottoman
Apothecary, hammam, Diwan poetry
The attar and aktar — Ottoman apothecaries. Isparta roses, Bursa silks, the precision of Diwan verse.
N° V
Modern Turkish
Living cultivation today
Isparta, Kuyucak, the Black Sea — the geography that still grows the plants we use.