"This is the first book to explore in detail the world history of humankind's use of bees from prehistoric times to the present day. Both rock art and recent field studies have shown how honey hunters obtained their harvest from bees' nests. Honey has always been the chief prize, but bee brood has been eaten as meat, and beeswax has been utilized in many technologies. Bees, honey, and wax have special symbolic significance in both early beliefs and later world religions.

But perhaps bees' greatest benefit has been their pollination of crops."--BOOK JACKET.