Observations on the historical evolution of beekeeping

Abstract

The so-called modern Beekeeping began to develop from the eighteenth century. However, the honey consumption is something that goes back to the Upper Paleolithic period. The cave paintings of Zimbabwe, more precisely the one located in the small shelter Toghawana Dam, owning nearly 10,000 years are, to date, the earliest record of man promoted by bee honey collection. In ancient Egypt, about twenty-four centuries before Christ, the Beekeeping was already a very common activity. Several representations dated at that time and found in the Temple of the Sun in Abu Gourab show scenes where men appear promoting the extraction and storage of honey. If Beekeeping among the Egyptians took shape in the Greek world it was the first scientific treatises object. Xenophon, Aristotle and Hippocrates devoted long pages to bees and honey, as a food product and medicine. The Greeks also produced excellent drinks from honey, presenting it as ‘the nectar of the gods'. In the Arab world, especially the Beekeeping was relevant in the works produced by Avicenna, whose medical textbooks have been used in Europe until the eighteenth century. However, it was from the Roman Empire to the Beekeeping - while economic activity - has to be stimulated mainly by the need to produce candles from bee wax. Faced with this necessity and importance given to medicinal honey, beekeeping [with its new management techniques] expanded by all the kingdoms conquered by the Romans, a fact that marked the beginning of the call Beekeeping Modern. This work aims to promote an approach to the historical evolution of Beekeeping in its infancy.