About Honey
DEFINITION
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) honey is
defied as a sweet substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from
plants are gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honeybees.
When it matures in the honeycombs, the honeybees seal it with a film of
wax. Exact replication of honey under laboratory conditions has been
impossible, although science is aware of honey's constituent elements.
HONEY AS PRIMARY FOOD
Today archaeologists have ample information concerning the practices of
collection and consumption of honey during the prehistoric times. In the
Cueva de Aranja of Valencia (Spain) there is an interesting cave
painting dating from the Paleolithic period depicting collection of
honey produced by wild bees. A stone relief from the area of Aboukir
(Egypt, 2560-2450 BC) represents a series of apiculture activities, e.g.
collection of honey from cylindrical clay hives. The sacred animals of
Egypt and the scarabs of Pharaohs were fed with fresh honey. The
Egyptians themselves believed that honey comes from the tears of a
virtuous Pharaoh. There are tribes in Africa and India that still
collect wild honey from rock crevices and tree hollows.
HONEY IN PREHISTORIC GREECE
The introduction of the apiculture in Greece is attributed to Aristaeos,
a mythical figure, or to Solon who claimed to have been initiated in
this art by the Egyptians. The Minoans were quite skilled in beekeeping
and honey harvesting owing to the fact that they had established
commercial relations with the Egyptians and other peoples of northern
Africa. This is evidenced by the renowned piece of gold jewelry
representing a complex of two bees and honeycomb that was found in the
area of Malia (Crete). Notwithstanding the fact that apiculture demands
skilled training, the Greeks, as well as other peoples, enjoyed honey by
collecting it from hives made by wild bees inside tree hollows and
caves. During the first centuries of the 3rd millennium we have
information with regard to wax uses in Poliochne of Lemnos and ancient
Troy. The wax was used to fashion molds for the construction of tools.
The first ancient beehive (1628 BC) found in Greece comes from Akrotiti
of Thera. This find is at least one millennium older than the earliest
evidence we have about apiculture in Greece.