Hey there,

One of my favourite facts is how in 1922, archaeologists opened King Tutankhamun's tomb and were blown away when they found something unexpected… aside from the mummified Pharoah!

 

 

They discovered jars of honey that were over 3,300 years old. They opened them, and some braver members of the team tasted the honey… it was still perfectly edible. And to this day, archaeologists still find jars of honey in the untouched depths of the tombs.

 

 

These discoveries tell us how important honey was to ancient civilisations. They weren't burying their kings with something ordinary. They were burying them with what they considered the food of the gods.

So today, I’m taking you on a journey through 8,000 years of honey history and exploring what our ancestors knew… and what we've somehow forgotten along the way.

 

The Oldest Evidence

The earliest known image of honey collection comes from a cave in Spain called Cuevas de L'Aranya… which translates to ‘Caves of the Spider’ - quite ironic!

Because the image shows a figure climbing ropes or vines to reach a wild beehive, surrounded by angry bees.

The painting is around 8,000 years old. Even in the Stone Age, we recognised honey as something worth getting our hands on (despite the risks of getting stung!)

 

The World's Oldest Honey: 

If Tutankhamun's honey surprised the world, the discovery in Georgia in 2003 rewrote the history books entirely. In a Bronze Age tomb, archaeologists found vessels containing honey estimated to be 5,500 years old. 

The oldest honey ever discovered!

When they analysed it, they found perfectly preserved pollen grains, providing information about the ancient environment and confirming the honey's authenticity.

 

 

Just as remarkable (in other Georgian tombs) they found 4,000-year-old fruit preserved in honey. When the fruit was cut open, it reportedly still smelled fresh, even after four millennia.

Why Honey Never Spoils

So why does honey last forever? It comes down to a perfect storm of chemistry.

Firstly, honey has almost no water. Its water activity sits around 0.6, while most bacteria need at least 0.9 to survive. While the high sugar concentration dehydrates any microorganism that tries to grow in it. Bacteria and fungi encounter honey and their cells shrivel.

Secondly, honey is naturally acidic, with a pH between 3.2 and 4.5. Most pathogens prefer neutral conditions. Honey's acidity creates yet another hostile environment.

Thirdly, (and this is the clever part) bees add an enzyme called ‘glucose oxidase’ during honey production. This enzyme slowly produces hydrogen peroxide, creating a natural antiseptic system that continues working for months or years after the honey leaves the hive.

It's essentially a self-sterilising food. No wonder ancient cultures considered it divine.

Medicine Before Modern Medicine

Long before antibiotics, honey was medicine. The ‘Ebers Papyrus’, an Egyptian medical text dating to around 1550 BCE, contains over 700 medical formulas… and a huge number of them include honey:

- Treatments for wounds

- Respiratory conditions

- Digestive problems

- Eye infections

Honey was the backbone of Egyptian pharmacology.

Hippocrates (pictured), the father of Western medicine, wrote extensively about honey's value for wounds, ulcers, and respiratory ailments. 

 

 

The Roman physician Galen developed elaborate honey-based preparations. 

Traditional Chinese Medicine used honey as both a treatment and a "carrier" to enhance other herbs. 

Ayurvedic texts from India classified eight different types of honey, each with specific therapeutic properties.

But these weren't old wives’ tales… modern research now confirms that honey is effective against over 60 species of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains like MRSA. Our ancestors didn't have microscopes, but they had thousands of years of observation. 

And they got it spot on!

 

 

Sacred Substance: Honey in Spiritual Life

Beyond its practical uses, honey was also highly revered for its supposed spiritual properties.

The Egyptians called honey "the tears of Ra"... believing it fell from the sun god as morning dew, collected by bees and transformed into liquid gold. 

The Greeks saw honey as ambrosia, food of the gods that granted immortality. The god Aristaeus was specifically dedicated to beekeeping, and temples maintained their own apiaries for religious ceremonies.

In Hindu tradition, honey is one of the five sacred substances (panchamrita) used in religious ceremonies. Buddhist texts describe the Buddha receiving honey from a monkey as an offering during meditation. 

 

 

Jewish communities dip apples in honey at Rosh Hashanah to symbolise hopes for a sweet new year. 

Christians still reference "the land flowing with milk and honey" as a symbol of divine blessing.

All fascinating takes, but across cultures and continents, honey carries the same meaning: it is something precious, pure, and it connects the human and the divine.

The History We've Lost…

Here's what troubles me about modern honey.

The same substance that ancient Egyptians considered sacred, that Hippocrates prescribed for healing, that has been found perfectly preserved after 5,500 years... is now routinely pasteurised, ultra-filtered, and blended beyond recognition in factories. That processing destroys many of the enzymes, pollen, and bioactive compounds that made honey valuable and antibacterial in the first place. 

The glucose oxidase that produces hydrogen peroxide? Damaged by heat. 

The phenolic compounds and flavonoids that provide antioxidant protection? Reduced by filtration.

The pollen that tells you where the honey actually came from? Often removed.

What you're left with is overly sweet sugar syrup that might look like honey, but it's not the same thing. Everything seems to be fast and cheap these days.

 

…The Future We Can Reclaim

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Raw honey, which is coarse-filtered and never heated, retains everything our ancestors valued, including:

- The enzymes

- The antimicrobial activity

- The complexity

And maybe it's just me, but I think there's something humbling about holding a jar of raw honey and knowing you're connected to a tradition stretching back 8,000 years.

It’s part of the reason why the Raw Honey Shop focuses ONLY on the real stuff.

 

Speak soon,

Tim

By the way: if you’re interested in honey with all its natural properties intact, then keep an eye out for the honey with high ‘Active’ ratings… the higher the number, the more antibacterial and antifungal potency.

We include a little active number rating alongside the honeys with high ratings.

Just click below to select from our favourites range, and look for the Active Rating badge:

👉TheRawHoneyshop.com/collections/top-sellers-2

Source:
Mandal & Mandal (2011), "Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity," published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, which itself references earlier work by P.C. Molan.