The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times, Issue #28, March 2015 | Page 26

Ancient Knowledge of Honey
Honey was a rare and expensive
commodity in Ancient Mesopotamia.
To date, the first written record of its
use as medicine was from a
Sumerian clay tablet dated from
1900-1250 BC. This product was
mostly collected from wild bees at
this time and it wasn’t until much
later that kings kept bees and made
honey for their own use. Indeed, the
earliest writing known of
beekeeping in this area in Suhu
whose Governor/King was Shamashres-usur (781-745 BC).
“I am Shamash-res-usur, Governor of
Suhu and Mari. Bees which gather
honey, which no one among my
forefathers had seen nor brought
down to the land of Suhu, I brought
down from the mountains of Habha
and established in the town Gabbariibni. They collect honey and was. I
understand how to do the melting out
of 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
Shamash-res-usur the Governor of
Suhu introduced bees."
In Sumer, honey was used in
medicine as well as an offering to the
gods before 2000 BC. The
Babylonians used it for the same
reaso