Gli apiari nelle pareti delle case e nei giardini. Il caso di Ürünlü/Kite (Bursa-Turchia)

Asia Minor, in antiquity, was one of the most renowned and productive regions for honey production. Lycia, Caria, and Phrygia, mentioned by ancient authors, were particularly noted for their high-quality honey, which was exported, along with other products, to the Aegean and Egypt. Bithynia, however, the region at the center of this contribution, has not yet yielded written, iconographic, or archaeological sources that attest to large-scale honey production. Nevertheless, some clues presented here might suggest that this practice was also widespread in this area. In the village of Ürünlü/Kite, near the city of Prusa (Bursa), beehives have been identified in the outer walls of houses built with raw bricks. These fixed hives, created within the walls of these houses, represent a rare feature throughout the Mediterranean. Honey production in this settlement was identified for the first time as part of a multidisciplinary ethno-archaeological research conducted by the author and the University of Bursa. Recently, these now-abandoned houses have been transformed into a bee museum in 2024, following my identification and proposal for musealization as a result of the research carried out.