The nature of Asia Minor (1)

Regarding the meaning of the terms erep and assu, as well as their descendants Europa and Asia, and then Occidens and Oriens, we find that they mean directions; that is, they are relative terms the exact meaning of which depends on the (normal) position of the speaker, on his or her subjectivity.

In later times, these terms seem to be more fixed, to become “immovables”, spatial entities in their own right. But in fact this process is governed by the naivety of the “speaker”, who assumes that everybody (everybody who matters) shares his own position. Accordingly, the “entities” meant with terms like “Occident” or “Asia” still “move” and vary over time and between different speakers.

It still needs a certain naivety today to assume that it is clear what the term “Asia”, for instance, means geographically. This however would require a definition of “Asia” independent from an observer, solely based on its own characteristics. Such a definition does, to my knowledge, not exist. “Asia” means the coherent land mass (the continent) of “Eurasia” minus “Europe”. Then we have “Asia”. But what exactly is “Europe”?

I’ll not repeat this discussion here, though. At this point, the issue shall be “Asia minor”, because a current political discussion handles this term as something like a natural marker which links the minor to the major “Asia”, assuming its belonging to Asia as a natural fact beyond political preferences. If this is the factual case, then the “minor Asia” should repeat the natural features of the “Asia major”.

Geomorphology

A good hint to that may be the geomorphological gestalt of the Anatolian peninsula, basically a moderate highland plateau surrounded by high mountain ridges. It repeats in minor extension and/or lower elevation the highlands of Iran-Afghanistan and the even bigger and higher constellation of Tibet. So we might guess that Iran plus Tibet is “Asia major”. however, as for instance Hütteroth and Höhfeld (2002) remark, the constellation repeats itself two times further in the west, first in and around the Pannonian plains and second in the Iberian peninsula, both somewhat smaller and at lower altitude. Accordingly, we would have to call the Anatolian peninsula “Asia media”, whereas we find “Asia minor” in Hungary and Spain.

So once again, geomorphology doesn’t get us very far. We never doubted that Anatolia is a part of Eurasia, and the morphological analogy doesn’t give us an inch of additional evidence.

Vegetation

The next try with natural features would cover the natural formations of vegetation, which represent the pristine and/or current physiognomic appearence of a country as well as basic conditions of living for animals and Man.

So what would be the analogies to “Asia”? If Asia is Eurasia minus Europe, and Europe is west of “Asia minor”, then we have four major vegetational units in “Asia” (east of “Asia minor”, which as the subject of investigation connot provide criteria), or “Asia major”:

1. in the south the various tropical jungles, extending to mangrove at the coasts,
2. deserts and steppes (dry and moister steppes) in central and southwestern Asia,
3. Taiga and Tundra formations in the north, and
4. basically mixed mesophytic broadleaf and conifer forests in the east.

Looking for analogies in “Asia minor”, we find that jungles, mangrove, deserts, Taiga and Tundra do not occur, while natural steppes, mainly of the moister types, make around twenty percent of the area, though the dry variants of steppe typical for southwestern Asia are very scarce or lacking.

What we find are mainly mesophytic forests as in eastern Asia, and like there much of the natural vegetation has been replaced by anthropogenic formations. Yet, the question remains wether Eastern Asia can be considered to be “Asia major” by itself, omitting three quarters of “Asia” (Eurasia minus Europe) from “Asia”?

Moreover, this general mesophytic formation of eastern Asia repeats itself in the west of Eurasia, that is, in Europe. So perhaps we should look for some more details, as we cannot conclude that “Asia minor” or Anatolia is a minor expression of just “Eastern Asia” and thus might be renamed “China minor” or so.

 To be continued...