Skip to main content
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses

New Research In

Physical Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Physical Sciences
  • Astronomy
  • Computer Sciences
  • Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics

Social Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Economic Sciences
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Political Sciences
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Social Sciences

Biological Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Agricultural Sciences
  • Anthropology
  • Applied Biological Sciences
  • Biochemistry
  • Biophysics and Computational Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Immunology and Inflammation
  • Medical Sciences
  • Microbiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Physiology
  • Plant Biology
  • Population Biology
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Sustainability Science
  • Systems Biology
Research Article

Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honeybees

Guy Bloch, Tiago M. Francoy, Ido Wachtel, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Stefan Fuchs, and Amihai Mazar
PNAS June 22, 2010 107 (25) 11240-11244; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1003265107
Guy Bloch
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: bloch@vms.huji.ac.il
Tiago M. Francoy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ido Wachtel
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Nava Panitz-Cohen
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Stefan Fuchs
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Amihai Mazar
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Edited by Bruce Smith, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and approved May 10, 2010 (received for review March 15, 2010)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Although texts and wall paintings suggest that bees were kept in the Ancient Near East for the production of precious wax and honey, archaeological evidence for beekeeping has never been found. The Biblical term “honey” commonly was interpreted as the sweet product of fruits, such as dates and figs. The recent discovery of unfired clay cylinders similar to traditional hives still used in the Near East at the site of Tel ReEmbedded Imageov in the Jordan valley in northern Israel suggests that a large-scale apiary was located inside the town, dating to the 10th–early 9th centuries B.C.E. This paper reports the discovery of remains of honeybee workers, drones, pupae, and larvae inside these hives. The exceptional preservation of these remains provides unequivocal identification of the clay cylinders as the most ancient beehives yet found. Morphometric analyses indicate that these bees differ from the local subspecies Apis mellifera syriaca and from all subspecies other than A. m. anatoliaca, which presently resides in parts of Turkey. This finding suggests either that the Western honeybee subspecies distribution has undergone rapid change during the last 3,000 years or that the ancient inhabitants of Tel ReEmbedded Imageov imported bees superior to the local bees in terms of their milder temper and improved honey yield.

  • Apis mellifera
  • domestication
  • biogeography
  • climate change
  • Iron Age IIA

Footnotes

  • 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bloch{at}vms.huji.ac.il.
  • Author contributions: G.B. and A.M. designed research; G.B., T.M.F., I.W., N.P.-C., and S.F. performed research; T.M.F. and S.F. analyzed data; and G.B. and A.M. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1003265107/-/DCSupplemental.

    View Full Text
    PreviousNext
    Back to top
    Article Alerts
    Email Article

    Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

    NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

    Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
    Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honeybees
    (Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
    (Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
    CAPTCHA
    This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
    Citation Tools
    Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honeybees
    Guy Bloch, Tiago M. Francoy, Ido Wachtel, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Stefan Fuchs, Amihai Mazar
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2010, 107 (25) 11240-11244; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003265107

    Citation Manager Formats

    • BibTeX
    • Bookends
    • EasyBib
    • EndNote (tagged)
    • EndNote 8 (xml)
    • Medlars
    • Mendeley
    • Papers
    • RefWorks Tagged
    • Ref Manager
    • RIS
    • Zotero
    Request Permissions
    Share
    Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honeybees
    Guy Bloch, Tiago M. Francoy, Ido Wachtel, Nava Panitz-Cohen, Stefan Fuchs, Amihai Mazar
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2010, 107 (25) 11240-11244; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003265107
    Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
    • Tweet Widget
    • Facebook Like
    • Mendeley logo Mendeley
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 107 (25)
    Table of Contents

    Submit

    Sign up for Article Alerts

    Article Classifications

    • Social Sciences
    • Anthropology
    • Biological Sciences
    • Evolution

    Jump to section

    • Article
      • Abstract
      • Results
      • Discussion
      • Materials and Methods
      • Acknowledgments
      • Footnotes
      • References
    • Figures & SI
    • Info & Metrics
    • PDF

    You May Also be Interested in

    Abstract depiction of a guitar and musical note
    Science & Culture: At the nexus of music and medicine, some see disease treatments
    Although the evidence is still limited, a growing body of research suggests music may have beneficial effects for diseases such as Parkinson’s.
    Image credit: Shutterstock/agsandrew.
    Scientist looking at an electronic tablet
    Opinion: Standardizing gene product nomenclature—a call to action
    Biomedical communities and journals need to standardize nomenclature of gene products to enhance accuracy in scientific and public communication.
    Image credit: Shutterstock/greenbutterfly.
    One red and one yellow modeled protein structures
    Journal Club: Study reveals evolutionary origins of fold-switching protein
    Shapeshifting designs could have wide-ranging pharmaceutical and biomedical applications in coming years.
    Image credit: Acacia Dishman/Medical College of Wisconsin.
    White and blue bird
    Hazards of ozone pollution to birds
    Amanda Rodewald, Ivan Rudik, and Catherine Kling talk about the hazards of ozone pollution to birds.
    Listen
    Past PodcastsSubscribe
    Goats standing in a pin
    Transplantation of sperm-producing stem cells
    CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can improve the effectiveness of spermatogonial stem cell transplantation in mice and livestock, a study finds.
    Image credit: Jon M. Oatley.

    Similar Articles

    Site Logo
    Powered by HighWire
    • Submit Manuscript
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feeds
    • Email Alerts

    Articles

    • Current Issue
    • Latest Articles
    • Archive

    PNAS Portals

    • Anthropology
    • Chemistry
    • Classics
    • Front Matter
    • Physics
    • Sustainability Science
    • Teaching Resources

    Information

    • Authors
    • Editorial Board
    • Reviewers
    • Librarians
    • Press
    • Site Map
    • PNAS Updates

    Feedback    Privacy/Legal

    Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490