Publication Date:
2015-11-13
Description:
The pressures on honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, the association of humans with A. mellifera predates post-industrial-revolution agriculture, as evidenced by the widespread presence of ancient Egyptian bee iconography dating to the Old Kingdom (approximately 2400 BC). There are also indications of Stone Age people harvesting bee products; for example, honey hunting is interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. However, when and where the regular association of A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant as it is determined genetically through the insect's biochemistry. Thus, the chemical 'fingerprint' of beeswax provides a reliable basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace the exploitation by humans of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Here we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa, providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the seventh millennium cal BC, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. The close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Roffet-Salque, Melanie -- Regert, Martine -- Evershed, Richard P -- Outram, Alan K -- Cramp, Lucy J E -- Decavallas, Orestes -- Dunne, Julie -- Gerbault, Pascale -- Mileto, Simona -- Mirabaud, Sigrid -- Paakkonen, Mirva -- Smyth, Jessica -- Soberl, Lucija -- Whelton, Helen L -- Alday-Ruiz, Alfonso -- Asplund, Henrik -- Bartkowiak, Marta -- Bayer-Niemeier, Eva -- Belhouchet, Lotfi -- Bernardini, Federico -- Budja, Mihael -- Cooney, Gabriel -- Cubas, Miriam -- Danaher, Ed M -- Diniz, Mariana -- Domboroczki, Laszlo -- Fabbri, Cristina -- Gonzalez-Urquijo, Jesus E -- Guilaine, Jean -- Hachi, Slimane -- Hartwell, Barrie N -- Hofmann, Daniela -- Hohle, Isabel -- Ibanez, Juan J -- Karul, Necmi -- Kherbouche, Farid -- Kiely, Jacinta -- Kotsakis, Kostas -- Lueth, Friedrich -- Mallory, James P -- Manen, Claire -- Marciniak, Arkadiusz -- Maurice-Chabard, Brigitte -- Mc Gonigle, Martin A -- Mulazzani, Simone -- Ozdogan, Mehmet -- Peric, Olga S -- Peric, Slavisa R -- Petrasch, Jorg -- Petrequin, Anne-Marie -- Petrequin, Pierre -- Poensgen, Ulrike -- Pollard, C Joshua -- Poplin, Francois -- Radi, Giovanna -- Stadler, Peter -- Stauble, Harald -- Tasic, Nenad -- Urem-Kotsou, Dushka -- Vukovic, Jasna B -- Walsh, Fintan -- Whittle, Alasdair -- Wolfram, Sabine -- Zapata-Pena, Lydia -- Zoughlami, Jamel -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2015 Nov 12;527(7577):226-30. doi: 10.1038/nature15757.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK. ; CEPAM - Cultures et Environnements. Prehistoire, Antiquite, Moyen Age, UMR 7264, Universite Nice Sophia Antipolis - CNRS, 06300 Nice, France. ; Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, Devon EX4 4QE, UK. ; Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK. ; Universite Bordeaux Montaigne, 33607 Pessac, France. ; Laboratoire du Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musees de France (C2RMF), UMR 171, Palais du Louvre, Porte des Lions, 14 Quai Francois Mitterrand, 75001 Paris, France. ; Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. ; Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, UK. ; Institut fur Prahistorische Archaologie, Freie Universitat Berlin, Altensteinstr. 15, Berlin 14195, Germany. ; Department of Archaeology, University of Turku, 20014 Turun Yliopisto, Finland. ; University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology, Askerceva 2, box 580, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. ; Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology. University of Basque Country (EHU-UPV), Francisco Tomas y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. ; Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 89d, 61-614 Poznan, Poland. ; Museum Quintana - Archaologie in Kunzing, Partnermuseum der Archaologischen Staatssammlung Munchen, Osterhofener Str. 2, 94550 Kunzing, Germany. ; Musee Archeologique de Sousse, Rue Marshall Tito, 4000 Sousse, Tunisia. ; Centro Fermi, Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro di Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, 00184 Rome, Italy. ; Multidisciplinary Laboratory, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, 34151 Trieste, Italy. ; UCD School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland. ; International Institute for Prehistoric Research of Cantabria, University of Cantabria, Avd de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain. ; Department of Archaeology, University College Galway, Galway, Ireland. ; UNIARQ-Departamento de Historia, Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, Universidade de Lisboa, 1600-214 Lisboa, Portugal. ; Istvan Dobo Castle Museum, Var ut 1, 3300 Eger, Hungary. ; Dipartimento Civilta e Forme del Sapere, Universita di Pisa, Via Galvani 1, 56126 Pisa, Italy. ; CNRS - UMR 5608 - TRACES, Maison de la recherche, Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures, 5 Allee Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse cedex 9, France. ; CNRPAH, Centre National de Recherche Prehistorique, Anthropologique et Historique, Algiers, Algeria. ; School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. ; Universitat Hamburg, Archaologisches Institut, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Flugel West, 20146 Hamburg, Germany. ; a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne, Graduiertenschule der Philosophischen Fakultat, Aachener Str. 217, 50931 Cologne, Germany. ; IMF-CSIC, Egipciacas 15, 08001 Barcelona, Spain. ; Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Prehistory, 34434 Laleli Istanbul, Turkey. ; Eachtra Archaeological Projects, Lickybeg, Clashmore, County Waterford, Ireland. ; School of History and Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece. ; German Archaeological Institute, Podbielskiallee 69-71, 14 195 Berlin, Germany. ; Musee Rolin, 3 rue des Bancs, 71400 Autun, France. ; John Cronin &Associates, 28 Upper Main Street, Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland. ; Aix-Marseille Universite, CNRS, Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication, UMR 7269 LAMPEA, LabexMed, 13284 Marseille, France. ; Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Rome 00185, Italy. ; Institute of Archaeology Belgrade, Kneza Mihaila 35/4 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. ; Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubingen, Institut fur Ur- und Fruhgeschichte und Archaologie des Mittelalters - Abt. Jungere Urgeschichte und Fruhgeschichte - Schloss Hohentubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de l'Environnement C.N. Ledoux, CNRS &Universite de Franche-Comte, 32 rue Megevand, 25030 Besancon Cedex, France. ; Kampfenstr. 20, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany. ; Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK. ; Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 55 rue de Buffon, 75005 Paris, France. ; Department of Pre- and Protohistory, University of Vienna, 1190 Vienna, Austria. ; Landesamt fur Archaeologie, Zur Wetterwarte 7, 01109 Dresden, Germany. ; Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University, 18-20 Cika Ljubina Street, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. ; Department of History and Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece. ; Irish Archaeological Consultancy, Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, County Wicklow, Ireland. ; Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK. ; State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz, Stefan-Heym-Platz 1, 09111 Chemnitz, Germany. ; Institut National du Patrimoine de Tunis - Musee archeologique de Carthage, Carthage, Tunisia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26560301" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Africa, Northern
;
Animals
;
Archaeology
;
Beekeeping/*history
;
*Bees
;
Ceramics/chemistry/history
;
Europe
;
Farmers/history
;
Geographic Mapping
;
History, Ancient
;
Lipids/analysis/chemistry
;
Middle East
;
Spatio-Temporal Analysis
;
Waxes/*analysis/chemistry/*history
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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