ABSTRACT
Some of the earliest civilizations developed in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates which rise in eastern Anatolia and join near their mouth in the Persian Gulf. Although many technological developments first originated there, Section 20.2 suggests that the use ofhives may not have been among them, for environmental reasons. The earliest known record of hive beekeeping in Mesopotamia is in an Assyrian relief (Figure 21.1a) erected in Suhu on the middle Euphrates. It shows the ruler Shamash-res-usur, who lived some time between 781 and 745 BC, and includes the passage:
town Gabbari-ibni [a town he had founded]. They collect honey and wax. I understand how to do the melting out of the honey and wax, and the gardeners also understand it. Any later person who appears, let him ask the old men of the country whether it is true that Shamashres-usur the Governor of Suhu introduced bees. (Saggs, 1984)
'The melting out of the honey and wax' may have referred to separation of wax and honey by heating, or to extraction of wax from comb residue after most of the honey had been removed by straining. The transport of bees and placing them in gardens implies the use of hives, and the comment that bees had not previously been seen in Suhu suggests that wild colonies did not survive there; on the other hand colonies cared for in suitably placed hives might well do so, and produce honey. It also seems to imply that hives were used by the people ofHabha in the mountains; these were in south-eastern Armenia or north-western Kurdistan (Neufeld, 1978), and this area, south of the point where modern Iraq, Iran and Turkey meet, has a rich beekeeping tradition today (Section 21.4).
