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THE KARAIN CAVES IN TURKEY
Since 1991 I held a clear vision of the valley in which the cave women and their children were attacked. The image was burned into my mind by the incident described in Ancient Pact.
Having not been able to locate the valley on numerous trips around the U.S. and an impressive list of foreign destinations--including two trips to Turkey--I decided to pick some old caves in Turkey so I could finish the book. Turkey was chosen because I felt strongly the caves were there. The fact that Ephesus is in this country also helped.
I decided on the caves near Samsun, on the Black Sea. However, during editing I kept skipping the cave sections. Every time I tried to work on them, my mind rebelled. A few days into my battle with writer's immobility, my friend Carmen happened by for a visit. I told Carmen my problem to which she glibly replied, "Maybe you've got the wrong caves."
She was right! As soon as she left, I began researching ancient caves in Turkey. As before, Samsun and Cappadocia kept popping up on the screen, neither of which fit the image in my head. So I changed the search keywords and dug deeper into the history of Turkey. Then I found them. Karain. Not only was the name eerily close to the Ancient Pact protagonist's name, but also descriptions of the caves fit the descriptions in the book.
When I saw a picture posted by a tourist to his website, my skin rippled in goose bumps. Three rooms, partway up a mountain, and facing east. The valley below the cave even contains mollusk shells and obsidian! All of these details were in early drafts of the manuscript, and the shocking memory described in the book, long before I looked for the caves.
Better yet, hominid habitation dates back at least three hundred thousand years, to the Lower Paleolithic. Neanderthal remains found there are the oldest hominid fossils in Turkey. While I have been to Turkey twice, I never made it any further south or east of Bodrum. One day soon I will take a trip to the southern region to explore the Karain Caves.
