Beekeeping, honey

[Crispina]

While spooning honey into my tea this afternoon, I got to thinking about honey jars or containers and what the Romans may have used for gathering and storage of honey. Did they keep bee hives? was honey an item of trade? was it used in cooking? I think I do remember "honey cakes" being mentioned in books. Have archaeologists ever found evidence of bee keeping?

[Melvadius]

Have archaeologists ever found evidence of bee keeping?

 

Amongst ancient writing on bees and beekeeping the obvious sources are in Pliny Natural History where he makes several mentions of both including in one section how the honeycombs would be weighed and a decision made on how much to put back into the hive. Something any modern apiarist presumably knows only too well.

 

Specifically in Book XXI, 47, Pliny declares his view that the best beehives are made from bark, the next best from fennel-giant and the third of osier although also mentioning some made from translucent stone and the need to apply cow dung over winter.

 

There is a short article on Finds of Graeco-Roman Beehives from Sphakia, SW Crete

 

Although it is based on fragmentary surface finds it is described as

 

...ceramic beehives collected and analyzed by the Sphakia Survey. These 381 fragments include beehives, extension rings, and one possible beehive lid; it is the largest assemblage of ancient beekeeping material known from Crete.

 

This item from Malta Inside Out has a photograph of a style of apiary which was used in Malta from at least the Roman period up to recent times in which recesses are built into walls where beehives were placed. The style of construction of both the recesses and how the bee hives are placed in the recesses allows the rear of the hive to be accessed and the honeycombs extracted.

 

There is actually evidence for beekeeping going back long before the Roman period as this Israeli item indicates describing the discovery of three rows of beehives

in the apiary, containing more than 30 hives. It is estimated, however, based on excavations to date, that in all the total area would have contained some 100 beehives.

[Crispina]

Thank you. Enjoyed that read very much, interesting about the apiary that was found. And I totally forgot about wax that was used on tablets.

[guy]

I don't know whether the articles above mention it, but honey was also important in Ancient Rome for medicinal purposes, including wound care and intestinal disorders.

 

It's use was mentioned by the Ancient Roman Celsus (from Wikipedia):

 

Aulus Cornelius Celsus (ca 25 BC

Edited May 13, 2012 by guy

[GhostOfClayton]

Didn't I read somewhere that Vespasian was a keen apiarist? Also, we mustn't forget to mention that wine was widely sweetened with honey.

[Kosmo]

I think honey was the only sweetener available. The use of wax for candles started probably in the Late Empire but is not very clear when and where. Some claim it was a result of the olive oil distribution networks during the migrations.