Beekeeping in the Ancient Mediterranean. The archaeology of the relationship between humans and bees from Prehistory to Late Antiquity

For a long time without even realizing it, humans have always had the best of allies in nature: the bee. Since its appearance on Earth nearly 100 million years ago, it has been the bee, along with other pollinators, that has primarily enabled the development, diversification, and survival of a complex and marvelous system of interdependent relationships that we now simply call Nature. The bee has accompanied humanity throughout its entire evolutionary journey, and we can trace this relationship back millennia to the dawn of history. But that’s not all. We can go even further back, certainly to the Neolithic era and, according to some scholars, even to the final stages of the Paleolithic era. Evidence of how honey has long been a fundamental food source in the human diet can be found in cave paintings from cultures geographically far apart, a clear sign of how humans had universally realized the importance of this insect and its products.