How Did Honey Evolve in our Diet

Honey is probably one of the most ancient sweeteners known to us and was probably consumed not only by us Homo sapiens sapiens but also Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis). In fact, very likely honey played a role in the evolution of the human desire and taste for sweet food products. Honey has played an important role not only in food consumption but also in medicine and even embalming in burial. Its prevalence in the New and Old Worlds have also made it widespread in use even in early prehistoric periods.

Early Use

The earliest evidence for the use of honey comes from Spain (Figure 1), at about 8-9,0000 years ago. However, very likely the use of honey goes back much further. Neanderthals probably used honey as a food they gathered and even our nearest relatives in the ape family are known to utilize honey. Scientists estimate that the evolution for sweet tastes developed in our ancestors at about 15 million years, long before even apes arose. It is postulated that honey could have been a key factor in the evolution or desire for sweet foods that we have now inherited. The main reason is foods with fructose can be vital in periods when starvation is prevalent. It has high amounts of energy relative to the amount that one needs to consume to survive.

In the 3rd millennium BCE, both ancient Mesopotamia, in Sumer or modern southern Iraq, and Egypt show evidence of beekeeping having developed. Honey, at this point, was used as an offering for the worship of gods and for food consumption. Beeswax was also utilized for making lost wax products such as metals, candles, sealings, and even as dental filling. The importance of beeswax and honey, in fact, led to the development of beekeeping as an important profession already by the third millennium BCE. Beehives were kept in temples as well as by private beekeepers, who traded honey and beeswax. The Hittite law codes mention fines given to those who would steel from beehives, indicating the importance that beehives had to the economy not only for food but also for wax.

Egyptian sources also indicate the Levant as a land of honey. The Egyptian hero Sinuhe indicates that beehives were being kept in the Levant in the 3rd millennium BCE. This depiction of the Levant as a "land of honey" may have later influenced references to the region in the Bible as a "land of milk and honey." Both in the Egyptian and Biblical references to honey denote prosperity in referencing honey. In war campaigns in the region by the Egyptians, they mention taking honey as tribute, indicating the importance of honey as a food product but also, in Egypt, as something used in the embalming process. This is also true in other cultures that embalmed, such as in Georgia, which also used honey as part of the embalming process for the dead. In fact, honey jars have been found in Egyptian tombs.