In the Museum of Beekeeping Culture run by our Brotherhood houses many interesting exhibits, but no one can remain indifferent to this one. It is a tree-hive from the 7th/6th century AD. While medieval beehives can be found in the collections of some open-air museums in Poland or in other countries, in our case the history is much more unique. And the tree itself had its last growth in 680 AD.
-We call this beehive a sarcophagus because for some reason the tree-beekeeper (bartnik) who made it stopped looking after it. Several decades passed and the tree completely overgrown the man made cavity inside the tree. – say Piotr Piłasiewicz from our Brotherhood
As the tree grown, it pushed the covering desk inside – the closure of the beehive chamber carved from a thick pine board, which also survived to our days. It is also the only complete beehive from over 1000 years ago! The complete set also includes a fragment of the 'eye’ – a wedge narrowing the entrance to the beehive, as well as one snoza – a crossbar that once supported the honeycombs.
The beehive started about 8 m above the ground of the tree. The diameter of the trunk at the height of the beehive was 80 cm. Dimensions of the tree-hive cavity: height: 80 cm, width 10 cm, depth up to 35 cm. However, the greatest uniqueness lies in the fact that at the same time as the monuments of the Beekeeping Culture and Beekeeping craft, there was also…
A complete bee nest from the 7th century! Wax combs gray with age like a wasp nest, filled with the remains of honey, brood, bee bread and propolis. And dead but well-preserved bees, drones and probably also the queen – who has not yet been found. The height of the preserved combs reaches 60 cm. At the bottom of the hive there was about 20 cm of humus created from dead bees that had previously inhabited the hive, remains of wax digested by fluke larvae and other impurities that accumulate on the bottom of a hive unused by humans. As Dr. Michał Kolasa said at the opening of the exhibition History of Four Hives in Augustów – there are no references in scientific literature to studies of genetic material of bees older than those from museum collections from the end of the 19th century. This requires even deeper analysis, but our collections probably contain the oldest preserved bee nest in the world.
Bee wax with honey and bee brood. From 680 AD.
Whole conference form the opening exhibition can be found on our YouTube canal with English subtitle.
We think that a series of fortunate coincidences led to the preservation of this exhibit to our times:
1) The tree overgrown the beehive made in it and the bees lived in it without human intervention for the entire period of the beehive overgrowing, estimated at about 70 years.
2) Then the tree with the ingrown beehive and the living bee family was overturned into the river and preserved in river mud.
3) After the trunks were extracted in a sandpit a few or a dozen years ago, it lay and dried out on the sidelines. Then it was sent to a sawmill for processing, where the fragment with the beehive was cut in such a way that the entire structure of the beehive was shown and thanks to the quick intervention of Paweł Kotwica in this form it came to us only 3 days after it was cut.
The preparation of the beehive for the exhibition was possible thanks to the partnership of the Podlaskie Voivodeship and they support to our organization. We came into possession of this log because we are preparing to expand the Museum of Beekeeping Culture as part of the project co-financed by the European Union INTERREG Poland-Lithuania program. „Beekeeping – tradition beyond borders.
Presentation of the oldest tree-hive. Fot. Bractwo Bartne
More details on email and questions: fundacja@bartnictwo.com
by phone:
0048 601 542 516
More articles about our tree-hive from english speaking media:
https://euroweeklynews.com/2024/12/09/medieval-bee-hive-discovered-which-will-allow-scientists-to-compare-with-modern-day-bees/
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/1-300-year-old-bee-hive-found-in-oak-stuns-scientists/ar-AA1vAKJ2
https://tvpworld.com/83900838/would-you-bee-lieve-it-worlds-oldest-preserved-beehive-found-in-polish-oak-tree
https://muckrack.com/kathrine-frich