Honey In Prehistoric Times

Honey In Prehistoric Times


PREADAMITIC man, before he changed his habitation and moved from trees to more comfortable quarters in caves and in the process of time became carnivorous, must have delighted in the luscious honey which evidently was plentiful in the forests. The friendship between man and the bees must have been sealed during those good old days, and has been preserved, even deepened, by continuous close contact and mutual service up to the present day. The bees still remain "man's best little friends in the world." They supply him with food, drink, light and medicine.

The human race, since pristine times, has looked upon Nature from the viewpoint of utility. Animals and plants which were most useful or most harmful were always best known to man. It is not surprising, therefore, that bees have been so much in favor since remotest antiquity. Divine Providence would have been devoid of benevolence if she had neglected to produce a creature like the honeybee, so essential to man, "for whom all things were made."

The history of honey is really the history of mankind. Bees, like horses, cattle and sheep, faithfully accompanied man in all his wanderings; they followed him over hills and dales, oceans and rivers, and were the chief witnesses of human civilization. To try to submit a complete history of honey would be a futile effort because there is not even a doubt that it is much older than human records and the race itself. Bees and their products were on our globe long before the Lord proclaimed: "Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram" (Let us now make man in our image and likeness.) Genesis Ch. I, v. 26.

We find the earliest traces of bees in the fossil ages. They were imbedded in amber, preserved by natural inhumation. Such discoveries have been reported in the Baltic regions of Germany, in Switzerland and in other parts of Central Europe. The size of these insects was about the same as that of our honeybees today. (Plate I.) Menzel suggested that they looked very much like the present Italian bees; Tony Kellen, on the other hand, thought that they seem to represent the Apis adamitica or pre-adamitica, originating in an era when the human race did not exist. Pytheas, the Greek navigator and astronomer (300 B.C.), referred to these fossil bees of the Baltic countries. Martial, in his epigrams (IV. 32), alludes to bees entombed in. amber, as though buried in honey, immortalized through their own labors.
"The bee inclos'd, and through the amber shewn, Seems buried in the juice, which was his own. So honour'd was a life in labor spent: Such might he wish to have his monument." (Translated by Wm. Hay, 1755.)

The petrified bee on Plate I is an interesting, very rare and unusually well preserved specimen. It was found only recently in the browncoal beds of Transylvania. This fossil bee from the Tertiary strata, imbedded in sandstone hundreds of thousands of years ago, is also similar to our contemporary honeybee. The rear legs have the identical rows of brushes, the abdomen consists of six segments separated by lighter colored bands and the antennae contain the same number of joints. The author is indebted for the cut to Mr. J. Skovbo of Hermiston, Oregon, who was kind enough to place it at his disposal.

The oldest evidence that honey was an important human objective is revealed by a prehistoric painting, discovered in 1919 at Cuevas de la Arana (Spider Cave), northwest of Bicorp, Valencia, Spain. This picture, painted in red, is the most ancient work of art known. (Fig. 1.) It originated in the Stone Age when man, trying to find shelter from the superabounding beasts, lived in caves. The painting is supposed to be about 15,000 years old, but as likely as not, it is some thousand years younger or older. The time-worn fossil relic is rather primitive but it clearly depicts a man climbing up on long ropes, probably woven of sedge grass, to a natural hole in the cliff, which the artist evidently intended to represent the dwelling of a swarm of wild bees. The man is taking honeycombs out of the cavity and putting them into a bag or basket. Some disturbed bees around the intruder are painted on a scale much larger than that of the human figure. (Obermaier.) The ancient origin of Spanish cave pictures is confirmed by the fact that many species of animals which are represented in these drawings are extinct today.

Other evidences that honey and wax existed during prehistoric eons are the earthenware colanders found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, originating in the Neolithic era. That these vessels were employed for straining honey, and possibly also for the utilization of wax, seems more than a conjecture because the inhabit-ants of the Bernese Alps still use similar vessels for these purposes.

Beyond doubt primitive man obtained honey from wild bees nesting in hollow trees and rocks, a habit which undomesticated bees still pursue. In all probability man cultivated bees as he tamed horses, oxen, sheep and dogs, instituting a cooperative partnership.