New york: Researchers have discovered a 3,500-year-old honey pot from Africa that provides the oldest evidence for the collection of honey on the continent. Archaeologists from Goethe University in Germany, in collaboration with chemists at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, have identified bee remains in 3,500-year-old potsherds of the Nok culture.
The Nok culture in Central Nigeria dates from between 1500 BC and the beginning of the Common Era and is best known for its extensive terracotta sculptures – representatives of the oldest figurative art in Africa.
“That honey was part of their daily menu was completely unexpected and unique in the early history of Africa until now,” said Peter Breunig, professor of Goethe.
“This is a remarkable example of how biomolecular information from prehistoric pottery combined with ethnographic data provides insight into the use of honey 3,500 years ago,” said Julie Dunne of the University of Bristol. The findings are set out in the journal Nature Communications.
The team began the investigation to find out if the Nok people moderated animals. But a third of the shards examined contain high-molecular lipids, typical of beeswax. It is not possible to reconstruct from the lipids which bee products were used by the people of the Nok culture. Most likely they separated the honey from the waxy combs by heating it in the pots.
But it is also conceivable that honey was processed together with other raw materials of animals or plants, or that it made grass. The wax itself could serve technical or medical purposes. Another possibility is the use of clay pots as beehives, as used to this day in traditional African societies, the team explained.
‘We assume that the use of honey in Africa has a very long tradition. The oldest pottery on the continent is about 11,000 years old. Maybe it also contains beeswax residues? Professor Katharina Neumann van Goethe said.
Source: Telangana Today