sweet as honey
The oldest bee fossils date back over one hundred million years, and humans have been harvesting honey from the moment they climbed down from the trees. Actually, before then, when we were still swinging around the branches. As far as backstories go, it’s a pretty sweet one.
Honey’s history is global, too. Traced from cave paintings in Spain (which show two hunters attacking a nest of bees) to clay vessels in Georgia (unearthed from an age-old tomb) to the records of ancient Greece, where a law was written that said: “He who sets up hives of bees must put them 300 feet away from those already installed by another.”
In Australia, where native species already existed, the early settlers introduced honey bees. Missing the comforts of home back in England, they brought some bees with them aboard the ship Isabella in 1822. The new critters adapted so well that different species were later introduced from other parts of Europe and North America, laying the foundations for the local honey industry today. It’s almost enough to forgive the colonists for bringing pests like lantana and foxes with them too.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Today, the primary uses for honey are basically unchanged from centuries past. Most people eat it, or add it as a sweetener, while others think of it as more of a medicine. Lesser known is the fact that honey has always carried some religious significance.
For Buddhists in India and Bangladesh, honey plays an important role in the festival Madhu Purnima, which celebrates the day Buddha bolted into the wilderness before making peace between his disciples. Legend has it that, while Buddha was hanging out, a thoughtful little monkey brought him some honey to mung on. So on Madhu Purnima each year, Buddhists remember this random act of kindness by giving jars of honey to local monks.
In the classic Greek myths, the food of Zeus and his posse was a honey-like substance known as ‘ambrosia’. Delivered by doves, it was said to make
