The keeping of honey bee colonies, historically in hollow logs, skeps and clay hives before the modern movable-frame box, for honey, wax and pollination. Where deliberate husbandry of bees first replaced simple honey hunting is disputed between an early Anatolian trail and a later, better-documented Egyptian one. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Sources disagree on where deliberate beekeeping began: Egyptian tomb art shows organized hives by roughly 2500 BCE, while beeswax residue in Anatolian pottery and cave art pushes human use of hive products back into the seventh to ninth millennium BCE. One reading holds these mark two independent origins rather than a single one.
Facts
Central QuestionApiculture, or beekeeping, is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. 1 Connections
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Source Beekeeping (Wikipedia)
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Source Beekeeping (Wikipedia)
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1. Beekeeping (Wikipedia)
WikipediaEarly history section
Domestication of bees is shown in Egyptian art from around 4,500 years ago.
Lead section
Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives.
View the Source Sweet Honey in the Rocks (University of Chicago Magazine)
University of Chicago MagazinebodyQuote, body
The earliest evidence we have of beekeeping in the Near East is from Egypt, those tomb paintings.
Open Questions (1 open question)
When and where did deliberate beekeeping begin?
Sources disagree on both the date and the place. Beeswax residue in Neolithic pottery pushes organized use of hive products into Anatolia and North Africa by the seventh to ninth millennium BCE, while the earliest unambiguous depictions of managed, tended hives come only from Egyptian tomb art around 2500 BCE. Some researchers argue for two independent centers of invention, in Egypt and Anatolia, rather than a single origin, since no continuous evidence links the two.
What would resolve this Additional securely dated archaeological finds of hive structures or beeswax use bridging the gap between the early Neolithic residue evidence and the first unambiguous Egyptian hive depictions, ideally with clear stratigraphic dating linking the two regions or ruling one out as independent.
ArchaeologyBeekeeping (Wikipedia)
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