Honeybee_ Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - C. Marina Marchese [30]
Long before sugar cane and maple syrup were discovered, honey was the first and only sweetener available to ancient man. A drawing discovered in 1921 inside a cave called la Cueva de la Arana (the Spider Cave) in Bicor, Spain, is the earliest known image of a honey hunter. Estimated to be approximately 15,000 years old, it portrays a man using a rope to climb the side of a mountain and carrying a basket in one of his hands. Hovering around him are five honeybees, which appear to be emerging from a hole in the side of the rock. Another man is hanging on to the rope just below him.
The first book about honey was published on 1759 in London. Written in English by a Covant Garden apothecary named Sir John Hill, its rambling title would never make it on the shelves in today: The Virtues of Honey in Preventing many of the Worst Disorders, and in the certain cure of Several Others...
BEEKEEPING AND HONEY AROUND THE WORLD
Customs and rituals about honey and honeybees weave through every ancient culture in the world. The information and stories have been passed down through the generations both orally and in writing.
I have compiled a brief compendium of international honeybee notes and facts.
EGYPT
• The ancient Egyptians were the first known organized beekeepers. The honeybee was the symbol of Lower Egypt, and keeping bees was a part of everyday life there. The Egyptians had sophisticated knowledge regarding bees. Carvings on temple walls tell stories of harvesting honey from trees and rocks. The Egyptians were also the first migratory beekeepers. They would place their beehives on boats and float them up and down the Nile to pollinate the crops along the river.
• Propolis, beeswax, and pollen played important roles in health, in the creation of various medicines, and in the embalming process. Honey was found in clay pots inside the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, who were thought to consume it in the afterlife. Mummified bodies have been perfectly preserved after having been covered with honey, beeswax, and propolis.
• Actual Egyptian medical texts, specifically the Edwin Smith Papyrus and the Ebers Papyrus, both dating from 1550 BC, recognize honey for its topical healing properties for wounds, sores, and skin ulcers. These papyri mention honey as an ingredient in at least nine hundred remedies. Egyptian doctors customarily prescribed honey and milk for the treatment of respiratory ailments and throat irritations.
CHINA
• Beekeeping has been documented as being practiced in China more than three thousand years ago. Oracle inscriptions from the Shang dynasty of the eleventh century BC show bees swarming. King Zhou Wu, the first ruler of the Chinese Zhou dynasty, led his army with a bee flag. He reigned from 1046 BC to 1043 BC.
• Since at least the second century BC, bees have been used in Chinese medicine, including through a technique often called bee acupuncture. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), pharmacist Li Shizen practiced traditional Chinese medicine in the Hubei province of China and used it for enhancing yin, or cold energy. Li Shizen wrote in the Compendium of Materia Medica, “There are five medicated functions of honey: dispersing heat, supplementing the internal organs, detoxifying, moistening dryness, and relieving pain.”
• Another Chinese medical text, Materia Medica of Shen Nong, written around 50 BC, says that honey has the ability “to pacify the deficiencies of the five internal organs, [honey] benefits the vital energy and supplements the internal organs; it also relieves pain, detoxifies, treats numerous illnesses and counterpoises hundreds of herbs.”
• Huang Gongxiu says in Probes on Materia Medica, written around 1736–1796, that “When honey is fresh, it is cool in nature and clears venting. When it is cooked, it is warm in nature and supplements the internal organs. Its flavor is the purest. Whoever feels deficiency in the internal organs, dry and unresolved, uncomfortable and unbalanced; with sudden pain in the heart or the stomach, have coughs and diarrhea, feels dizzying