Widespread exploitation of the honeybee by early neolithic farmers

Abstract

The pressures on Honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, human’s association with A. mellifera predates post-industrial revolution agriculture, as evidenced by the widespread presence of ancient Egyptian bee iconography dating to the Old Kingdom (ca. 2400 BC). There are also hints of Stone Age people harvesting bee products; for example, honey hunting is interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. Significantly though, as to when and where the regular association of the A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, nalkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant being determined genetically through the insect’s biochemistry. Thus, the chemical ‘fingerprint’ of beeswax provides a secure basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace human’s exploitation of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Herein, we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during Prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the 7th millennium cal BC, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. Thus, the close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata