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.
Here is a wonderful
article that touches on many aspects of ancient bee lore.
And for insights into the bee constellation be sure to read page about
Insects and Human Affairs
which is fascinating.
Back to the History of Beekeeping,
Beekeeping
page or 
Last modified 22 March 2000