Unfolding beeswax use in Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus through molecular analysis of lipids extracted from ceramic containers

During the past 30 years, molecular analyses have provided an important corpus of evidence for the exploitation of Apis mellifera products, honey and beeswax, since the Neolithic. In this paper, we report the earliest, to our knowledge, evidence of bee product exploitation in Cyprus dated to the Ceramic Neolithic (5th millennium BC) and the Chalcolithic periods (4th–mid 3rd millennia BC). Systematic sampling and analysis of organic remains absorbed in the walls of ceramic containers from the Ceramic Neolithic sites of Sotira Teppes and Kantou Kouphovounos and also the Middle Chalcolithic site of Erimi Pamboula, located to the central and southern part of Cyprus, were undertaken. We conducted lipid residue analysis in seventy-nine sherd samples, using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry that provided direct chemical evidence for the presence of beeswax residues in twelve vessels from Erimi Pamboula and one vessel from Sotira Teppes. These findings bring new light on the use of beeswax in Cyprus, pushing back the date for the exploitation of Apis mellifera on the island to the second half of the 5th millennium BC. The sampled vessels do not imply a pattern in pottery types where beeswax was preserved, although its extensive presence at Erimi Pamboula ceramics suggests the diachronic use of bee products in the area. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.