18 BEEKEEPING IN PREHISTORIC GREECE BEEKEEPING IN PREHISTORIC GREECE Haralampos V. Harissis Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Ioannina, Greece
[email protected] Traces of beeswax on prehistoric potsherds have re- Beehives vealed that the harvesting of bee products by man has been practiced in Greece since the Middle Neolithic period1 Before the wide distribution of the modern bee- (c. 5500 BCE). However, it is difficult to ascertain whether hive (discovered in 1866 but not propagated in Greece beeswax was the product of wild or domesticated bees. until 1930), in no place did there exist only one type The harvesting of wild honeycombs has existed since the of beehive5. A great variety of forms and materials time of hunter-gatherer groups: rock paintings from Spain, were in use, at least up until the 1960s. The existence dating to the Mesolithic period, around 6000 BCE, depict of numerous types of beehives can be explained by such scenes2. the diversity of the environmental conditions, the availability of raw materials and different beekeeping It is known, mainly from pictorial evidence, that sys- practices. The same was true in antiquity; Varro, Virgil, tematic apiculture (with beehives) was practiced in Egypt Columella, Pliny and Palladius mention the different from at least c. 2400 BCE3, and the forms of these ancient materials used for beehives: biodegradable mate- beekeeping paraphernalia have remained unchanged un- rials such as bark, Ferula plant stems, woven wicker, til modern times. Iconography, textual evidence and organ- hollowed logs, boards of wood, cow dung, sun-dried ic residue analysis leave no doubt that honey and its deriv- mud and other non-biodegradable materials, such atives were used in Bronze Age Greece, the countryside of as clay, brick or stone6.