科学家在可能是世界上最古老的蜂巢里发现了在蜂窝里的工蜂、雄蜂和正在发育的蜂的残骸。Guy Bloch及其同事确定了在以色列Tel Rehov的一个庭院里发现的一排陶土柱是家养蜜蜂的蜂巢，它们是这座城市的一个产业蜜蜂园的一部分。对在附近发现的碳化谷物的碳测年分析表明这些蜂巢的年代接近于圣经中记载的3000年前大卫王和所罗门王的统治时期。这组作者说，尽管埃及人的壁画和文字提示那时候已经养蜂用于取蜡和产蜜，在这些蜂巢发现之前，没有在古代近东地区发现古代养蜂的实在证据。
这组科学家用电子显微镜检查了这些蜜蜂的腿和翅，确定了这些蜜蜂是不同于以色列今天的地区蜜蜂亚种的一个亚种。这组作者提出，Tel Rehov的古代定居点可能从今天属于土耳其的地区引进了品质更好的蜜蜂，诸如性格更温和且蜂蜜产量更高。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1003265107
Industrial apiculture in the Jordan valley during Biblical times with Anatolian honeybees
Guy Blocha,1, Tiago M. Francoyb, Ido Wachtelc, Nava Panitz-Cohenc, Stefan Fuchsd, and Amihai Mazarc
aDepartment of Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel;
bEscola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, Universidade de S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo, Brazil;
cInstitute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91905, Israel; and
dDepartment of Biological Sciences, Institut fur Bienenkunde (Polytechnische Gesellschaft), Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, D-61440 Oberursel, Germany
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 Reov 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 Reov imported bees superior to the local bees in terms of their milder temper and improved honey yield.
