The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt
The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt Gene Kritsky 2015; 160 pages, 103 plates Oxford University Press, New York, NY ISBN: 978 0 199 36138 0 $29.95 (hardcover) [Graphic][1] According to a papyrus written around 300 BCE, the Egyptian sun god Re "wept and the tears from his eyes fell on the ground and turned into a bee" This origin story sets the scene for The Tears of Re in which author Gene Kritsky explores archaeological evidence of early beekeeping and its place in Egyptian culture. Kritsky, who received a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach entomology at Minya University in Upper Egypt in the early 1980s, has been smitten with both bees and Egyptian history for years. In his newest book, he emphasizes the difference between honey hunting and the birth of beekeeping. Humans have harvested honey for at least 8,000 years, robbing combs from wild colonies, but the Egyptian civilization was the first to practice large scale, organized beekeeping. The first known archaeological evidence of human made beehives comes from Egypt's Old Kingdom, when pharaoh Newoserre Any built his spectacular solar temple in the 25th century BCE. On five limestone blocks, together measuring only two feet by six [1] /embed/inline graphic 1.gif