Is it true that the Egyptians were responsible for inventing beekeeping?
Image by Salim Virji
Beekeeping in Alphabet City
Question by Liz: Is it true that the Egyptians were responsible for inventing beekeeping?
If you really know a lot about the subject theres no limit to the amount of info I want. Much appreciated.
What do you think? Answer below!
7 Responses to Is it true that the Egyptians were responsible for inventing beekeeping?
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I don’t really know the concise history of beekeeping, but I would be inclined to say that is not correct …
blursd2
October 27, 2011 at 1:55 pm
I don’t know about inventing it, but they did have bees and bee keepers because the used the honey for sweatening breads and beer. Many of the Egyptian tombs had jars full of honey in them to accompany the person in the tomb on the journey to the afterlife.
johnathanapples
October 27, 2011 at 2:42 pm
actually, I think it might be Babylonians, but go to winkopedia( sp) and look it up. or googel egyption bee keepers. That should work.
LPnerd
October 27, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Who were the first beekeepers?
Early rock paintings on cave walls in Africa and eastern Spain show people gathering honey from trees or rock crevices while bees fly around them. Cave drawings in Spain, near Valencia from around 7000 B.C. show figures climbing to out of reach places and gathering honey. Other cave images show figures surrounded by bees without being stung. Early honey gatherers probably learned by accident that smoke would calm bees as an offshoot of using fire for “warding-off” or driving other animals.
There is evidence that man has long known that honey is a valuable food source. However, until man took the step to establish artificial hives, honey was only a rarely obtained “sweet reward”.
Beekeeping originally may have developed following the observation that swarms will settle in any container with a dark interior space protected from the elements, similar to holes in trees or logs where bees are naturally found. Pottery vessels or straw containers provide the necessary shelter and protection for hive establishment.
When man learned to safeguard the bees and hives, a number of hives would be situated together in whatever type container was common to the region. Hives made from logs can still be found in forested regions of Europe, horizontal pottery hives are used along the Mediterranean and hives made of woven straw, known as skeps are still used in France and Belgium.
Native honey bees are not known from the New World (North, Central and South America), but a stingless, social, honey storing bee is known to have been kept by the Mayans. Stone disks have been found that are thought to have been the end stoppers on wooden log-shaped hives that have since decayed. A pottery incense burner from 1400 A.D. in the form of the Mayan bee god Ah Mucan Cab is known from the island of Cozumel, off the coast of the Yucatán. Even older, are the 37 stone disks found in Belize which may date from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. and represent the oldest artifacts related to beekeeping in the New World.
Go to Google and put in “Beekeeping history” and you’ll find many more sites.
Frosty
October 27, 2011 at 3:34 pm
The domestication of bees was well developed in Egypt and sealed pots of honey were found in the grave goods of Pharoahs such as Tutankhamun. Beekeeping was also documented by the Roman writers Virgil, Gaius Julius Hyginus, Varro, and Columella. Aspects of the lives of bees and beekeeping are discussed at length by Aristotle.
Archaeologist Amihai Mazar of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University said that findings in the ruins of the city of Rehov include 30 intact hives, 900 B.C., and evidence that an advanced honey industry existed in the Holy Land at the time of the Bible or 3,000 years ago. The beehives, made of straw and unbaked clay were found in orderly rows, with 100 hives. Ezra Marcus, expert of Haifa University, said the finding was a glimpse of ancient beekeeping seen in texts and ancient art from the Near East. Religious practice was evidenced by an altar decorated with fertility figurines found alongside the hives.
That came from Wikipedia. However, I’m not sure which came first.
sam
October 27, 2011 at 4:26 pm
I would guess so. I saw it on the Discovery Channel and that’s what I heard.
irishluckily
October 27, 2011 at 4:35 pm
im pretty sure but if im wrong im sorry
eclipserox25
October 27, 2011 at 4:37 pm