Archaeologists working in northern Israel have discovered a 3,000-year-old apiary, complete with 30 intact hives made out of straw and unbaked clay. It’s a find that gives credence to the Biblical decription of Israel as the “land of milk and honey.”

The word “honey” appears 55 times in the Bible, but the term is widely accepted to refer to a sweet made from dates and figs. (Bees’ honey is mentioned explicitly only twice in the texts, and both references related to honey from wild bees.)

Pictorial depictions of apiaries from Pharaonic Egypt show honey being extracted from cylinder-shaped hives which are very similar to those found at Tel Rehov, and hives of this type were known throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.

While the Bible tells us nothing about beekeeping in Israel at that time, the discovery of the apiary at Tel Rehov indicates that beekeeping and the extraction of bees’ honey and honeycomb was a highly developed industry as early as the First Temple period. Thus, it is possible that the term “honey” in the Bible indeed pertains to bees’ honey.

Tel Rehov is the first discovery of beehives in situ in an apiary, however, and the room where the hives were found seems to have been intended to hold as many as 100 hives, stacked up three hives high in three long rows.

The find is particularly significant because of the apiary’s location in the heart of what is believed to have been — around the time of King Solomon, in the mid-10th to early 9th century B.C. — one of most important and thriving cities in the region.

The unique location might have been chosen so that the ruler of the city could keep a close eye on honey production, expert Ezra Marcus of Haifa University has suggested, or it is possible that the beekeeping industry may have been related to the local religious practices.

Cultic objects were also found in the apiary, including a four-horned altar adorned with figures of naked fertility goddesses, as well as an elaborately painted chalice. This could be evidence of deviant cultic practices by the ancient Israelites related to the production of honey and beeswax.

Traces of beeswax and pollen have also been identified in the excavated hives, as well as parts of the bodies of bees, still trapped in the honeycomb. Scientists are analyzing these finds to see what they have to tell us about these ancient ancestors of today’s honey bees.

Thanks to CBA member Sterling Clark for the tip on this story.

See also:

Hebrew University excavations reveal first Biblical period beehives in ‘Land of Milk and Honey’
Press Release: Hebrew University
2 September 2007

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Beehives by Matti Friedman
Associated Press
4 September 2007