Old Kingdom beekeeping with hives (Niuserre's sun temple)
Apicultura con colmenas del Reino Antiguo (templo solar de Niuserra)
- Date
- c. 2400 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Sun Temple of Niuserre, Abu Gurab, Giza, Egypt
- Credited to
- Beekeepers of Old Kingdom Egypt
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A relief from the sun temple of Pharaoh Niuserre shows stacked cylindrical hives, beekeepers smoking the bees and honey being extracted, the earliest known depiction of beekeeping with hives. Honey sweetened foods and was used as an offering and as medicine.
The relief is largely preserved in Berlin; the interpretation as hive beekeeping is the dominant one, although the reconstruction of the scenes is partial.
What it led to
- honey and wax as regular products, with an associated industry
- use of honey in Egyptian food, embalming and medicine
- Nile mud hives, which survived for a very long time in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean