Honey-collecting in prehistoric West Africa from 3500 years ago

• Published in: Nature communications 2021-04, Vol.12 (1), p.2227-2227, Article 2227
• Main Authors: Dunne, Julie, Höhn, Alexa, Franke, Gabriele, Neumann, Katharina, Breunig, Peter, Gillard, Toby, Walton-Doyle, Caitlin, Evershed, Richard P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 49; 631/181/19; 631/181/27; 639/638/11; Africa, Western; Agriculture - history; Alkanes; Animals; Archaeology; Bees; Beeswax; Beverages; Culture; Esters; Exploitation; Food sources; History, Ancient; Honey; Honey - analysis; Honey - history; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Larvae; Lipids; Lipids - chemistry; multidisciplinary; Nigeria; Pottery; Prehistoric era; Residues; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Vessels
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22425-4

Honey and other bee products were likely a sought-after foodstuff for much of human history, with direct chemical evidence for beeswax identified in prehistoric ceramic vessels from Europe, the Near East and Mediterranean North Africa, from the 7 th millennium BC. Historical and ethnographic literature from across Africa suggests bee products, honey and larvae, had considerable importance both as a food source and in the making of honey-based drinks. Here, to investigate this, we carry out lipid residue analysis of 458 prehistoric pottery vessels from the Nok culture, Nigeria, West Africa, an area where early farmers and foragers co-existed. We report complex lipid distributions, comprising n -alkanes, n -alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters, which provide direct chemical evidence of bee product exploitation and processing, likely including honey-collecting, in over one third of lipid-yielding Nok ceramic vessels. These findings highlight the probable importance of honey collecting in an early farming context, around 3500 years ago, in West Africa. Though there is a long archaeological record of the use of honey, beeswax and other bee products, there are few known records from Africa. Here Dunne et al. analyse lipid residues from pottery from the Nok culture, Nigeria, dating to ~3500 years ago and find evidence of the collection and processing of bee products, likely honey.