His study of female costumes, particularly in Maramures, has led to the conclusion that the stiched patterns represent more than simple decorative motifs. The costume itself is “a temple carried on a living being.” The symbolic language expressed on a costume links back to pre-history lore of an “axis mundi” centered on paradise island from which grew a primordial tree, its roots in hell and its branches reaching into paradise.

His study of oral histories carried down through the ages as songs led to a revelation otherwise dismissed as meaningless phraseologies. Frequent references to ‘seas’, disasters, and floods were suddenly made relevant by the research of Robert Ballard in the Black Sea. These songs, Apan suggests, recall the flood — biblical in scope – that occurred when melting ice caps led to the breaking of the Bosphorus barrier and inundation of the Black Sea plains.