[Pollinator] SF Chronicle: Archaeologists Discover Ancient Beehives

[Jennifer Tsang]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/04/international/i1
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<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/04/international/i
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Archaeologists Discover Ancient Beehives


By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

(09-04) 15:52 PDT JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- 

Archaeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a
3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient
honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives
ever found.

The findings in the ruins of the city of Rehov this summer include 30 intact
hives dating to around 900 B.C., archaeologist Amihai Mazar of Jerusalem's
Hebrew University told The Associated Press. He said it offers unique
evidence that an advanced honey industry existed in the Holy Land at the
time of the Bible.

Beekeeping was widely practiced in the ancient world, where honey used for
medicinal and religious purposes as well as for food, and beeswax was used
to make molds for metal and to create surfaces to write on. While bees and
beekeeping are depicted in ancient artwork, nothing similar to the Rehov
hives has ever been found before, Mazar said.

The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay, have a hole at one end to
allow the bees in and out and a lid on the other end to allow beekeepers
access to the honeycombs inside. They were found in orderly rows, three
high, in a room that could have accommodated around 100 hives, Mazar said.

The Bible repeatedly refers to Israel as a "land of milk and honey," but
that's believed to refer to honey made from dates and figs - there is no
mention of honeybee cultivation. But the new find shows that the Holy Land
was home to a highly developed beekeeping industry nearly 3,000 years ago.

"You can tell that this was an organized industry, part of an organized
economy, in an ultra-organized city," Mazar said.

At the time the beehives were in use, Mazar believes Rehov had around 2,000
residents, a mix of Israelites, Canaanites and others.

Ezra Marcus, an expert on the ancient Mediterranean world at Haifa
University, said Tuesday the finding was a unique glimpse into ancient
beekeeping. Marcus was not involved in the Rehov excavation.

"We have seen depictions of beekeeping in texts and ancient art from the
Near East, but this is the first time we've been able to actually feel and
see the industry," Marcus said.

The finding is especially unique, Marcus said, because of its location in
the middle of a thriving city - a strange place for thousands of bees.

This might have been because the city's ruler wanted the industry under his
control, Marcus said, or because the beekeeping industry was linked to
residents' religious practices, as might be indicated by an altar decorated
with fertility figurines that archaeologists found alongside the hives.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/04/international/i13032
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Jennifer Tsang
Coevolution Institute <http://coevolution.org> 
423 Washington St. 5th Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94111-2339
T: 415.362.1137

F: 415.362.3070

www.nappc.org

www.pollinator.org

 

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