THE FASCINATING HISTORY OF HONEY:

Bugs In Our Backyard

Honey is as old as history is itself. While the ancient Egyptians were the first to
master honey production on a large scale, they were not the first capitalize on
the hard work of honeybees. This title goes to the ancient people of Spain, who
were robbing beehives almost 5,000 years before the Egyptians were slathering
their mummies in honey. Archaeologists discovered honeycomb in Egypt that
had been buried with the pharaohs in their tombs, the honey was preserved and
was still eatable.
In the early 1920’s, cave paintings were discovered in the Cuevas de la Araña of
Valencia, Spain that clearly depict a human figure collecting honey directly form
a hive. This figure, now called the “Man of Bicorp”, appears to be climbing vines
and fighting off angry bees to collect what may be our species’ first taste of
honey (worth it). This may not have been beekeeping on the scale of the
Egyptians, but it was certainty a monumental point in the history of apiculture.
The Romans used honey to heal their wounds after battles. Hannibal, a great
warrior gave his army honey and vinegar as they crossed the alps on elephants
to battle Rome. During the 10th century, the Kings and Queens of England had
fermented honey wine (Mead), the Edmeades family produced some of these.
HISTORIAN FACTS ABOUT HONEY:
Did you know that upon his death in 323 BCE, Alexander the Great was
transported over 1,800 miles, from Babylon to Macedonia, submerged in a vat of
honey? Or that, in 400 BCE, when Greek soldiers tried to usurp the Persian
throne, Persian generals defeated the Greeks by feeding local honeybees toxic
rhododendron flowers, which in turn poisoned the honey supply of the Greek
army? The history of honey is rich.