HARROW: Humans were making use of honeybee products such as beeswax as early as 7000BC, according to new research released.
Previously the use of bee products was dated to around 2400BC with ancient Egyptian murals and iconography depicting beekeeping.
However, scientists reveal today in Nature that based on an analysis of ancient pottery this date can be pushed back by almost 5,000 years.
The finding comes against a backdrop of concern over current honeybee populations, which are under threat from modern pesticides and diseases that have wiped out colonies in some parts of Europe and the US. First author Dr Melanie Roffet-Salque, from the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol in the UK, said although the honeybee (Apis mellifera) was the most studied of social insects, debate was still ongoing over the origins of the bee-human relationship.
“The honeybee holds a unique place in human culture,” she said.
“Notwithstanding its present-day economic importance, it has been revered over the millennia for the sheer beauty and complexity of the social organisation within its colonies.”
