oldest known species of bees. A rare specimen of this bee was preserved in Burmese amber that was found in what is now Myanmar (Southeast Asia). This bee, shown in Figure 1-1, is believed to date from the Cretaceous period, which was about 100 million years ago. To put that timeline in perspective, this bee was buzzing around during the same period that T-Rex was hunting for prey. Discoscapa apicula certainly shows some resemblance to the modern honey bee. Pollen grains were found on its legs that showed the bee had recently visited one or more flowers before becoming stuck inside a drop of resin and preserved for millions of years. You’ve got to wonder whether this bee also collected nectar and made honey? Maybe?
Courtesy of George Poinar
FIGURE 1-1: This little bee (entombed forever in amber) shared the earth with T-Rex, making it around 100 million years old. It’s the oldest known species of bee.
Eight thousand years ago, long before humans “domesticated” honey bees and became beekeepers, our early ancestors enjoyed the wonderful sweet qualities of the honey that bees made. They would hunt the honey from wild hives. No doubt a dangerous pursuit, climbing tall trees and sheer rock cropping to hunt down the bees and steal the honeycombs from the defensive occupants. In this early cave painting discovered in Biscorp, Spain, circa 6000 BC, we see a figure harvesting wild honey (see Figure 1-2). These early honey hunters found nutrition and energy from eating the wild honey, as well as rich protein from the bee brood.
Illustration by Howland Blackiston
FIGURE 1-2: Honey hunter collecting nourishment from a wild colony of bees.
Raising Bees in Ancient Egypt
The honey bee held great religious and spiritual significance in ancient Egypt. It was once thought that honey bees were the tears of the sun god Ra. Bees were regarded as a symbol of royalty and represented the lower Egyptian kingdom. There is no shortage of hieroglyphs documenting the significance of honey bees, the honey they produced, and the beekeepers who attended the hives. See Figure 1-3.
Honey was a treasured commodity for ancient Egyptians. They would float their beehives up and down the Nile following the bloom of the seasonal flowers. When the flowers stopped blooming in one region, the bees were moved further down the Nile to forage on other flowers, eventually traveling the entire length of Egypt. Honey was produced on a very large scale from a variety of floral sources. Surprisingly, the coveted Egyptian cotton is pollinated by honey bees.
The Egyptians loved their honey It was used as a sweetener in cooking and baking. It was used for paying taxes and preventing infection by being placed on wounds. An ancient Egyptian marriage vow stated, “I take thee as wife … and promise to deliver to thee twelve jars of honey each year.” Honey was even presented as tribute to the Egyptians from the countries they conquered.
Illustration by Howland Blackiston
FIGURE 1-3: Egyptian beekeepers tend to their clay hives while helpers smoke the colonies to calm the bees.
Honey was also used for religious purposes. Sacred animals were fed honey. Mummies were often embalmed in honey and propolis, and amphorae of honey were left in tombs, giving the deceased something to eat in the afterlife.
In short, the Egyptians revered honey as a very valued commodity.
As far back as the first dynasty, the Egyptians were known to value the quality and authenticity of their honey. The government assigned the title “Sealer of the Honey” to an esteemed individual who would witness all aspects of the production, insuring the best-quality honey for the Pharaohs and elite. Each vessel of prized honey was marked with an official seal insuring quality control.
Embalming with Honey and More
Spoiler alert. This section gets a little gross and may put you off honey for a while, but it’s interesting to note that due to its high acidity and hygroscopic properties, honey acts by drying out the water necessary for microbes and bacteria to survive. And when combining that with the antiseptic qualities of the hydrogen peroxide produced by honey, you have a pretty effective embalming fluid. In fact, upon his death, it is said that Alexander the Great’s body was preserved in a golden coffin filled with honey and taken back to Macedonia.
Now if that’s not gruesome enough, here’s a honey of a legend you may want to skip over. Have you ever heard of a mellified body? It is said that Mellification was a way for elderly people nearing the end of their lives to donate their body to become medicine that would be ingested by others to alleviate ailments. In short, turning the body into—yuck—a mummified human confection to be consumed for its healing properties. I’ll skip over any further details.
Discovering the World’s Oldest BeeHives
Archaeologists recently discovered ancient beehives dating back 3,000 years at the site of Tel Rehov in the Jordan valley in northern Israel (see Figure 1-4). This site appears to be the earliest physical evidence of beekeeping, around the time the prophet Elisha lived. Researchers estimate there were at least 180 hives made of clay cylinders, home to more than a million bees (shown in Figure 1-5). Archaeologists identified the remains of honey bees — including workers, drones, pupae, and larvae — inside about 30 clay hives. Each hive could have produced about 11 pounds of honey each year, making it a profitable business effort.
Courtesy of Amihai Mazar and Amihai Mazar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
FIGURE 1-4: The discovery of these beehives during the Tel Rehov Expedition suggests that beekeeping was already an elaborate agricultural practice in Israel 3,000 years ago.
Drawing by Ana Iamim. Courtesy of Amihai Mazar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
FIGURE 1-5: Artist rendering of this 3000-year-old apiary, which was estimated to have included over 180 clay hives.
This is the earliest discovery of beekeeping from ancient times. Each hive had a small hole on one side for the bees to come and go, and on the other side was a lid for the beekeeper to access the honeycomb. The archeologists used carbon dating on grains (of pollen?) that had spilled from a broken storage jar next to the hives to estimate that they were about 3,000 years old.
