Themed tour: Bees among the Celts

On this exciting tour of the Heuneburg plateau in Pyrene, visitors learn everything there is to know about beekeeping and the many uses of bee products in the Celtic Iron Age. The benefits of bees and their products were recognized early on in human history. As humans settled down, the first dwellings for bees were set up so that their precious products could be used on an ongoing basis. In addition to honey as a sweetener, beeswax was mainly used in crafts. During this tour, participants will learn interesting facts about the keeping and use of bees and their products in the Celtic Iron Age. ##### Bees and their products in Celtic times Long before the Celtic Iron Age, people already appreciated bee products. With the advent of settled life, the first specific forms of beekeeping emerged. Instead of simply collecting wild honey, simple dwellings were created to permanently settle bee colonies and make regular use of their yields. Bees were also of great economic and cultural importance in the Celtic world: honey was the most important sweetener of the time. Since sugar was unknown, honey was a precious and versatile ingredient – both in everyday nutrition and on special occasions. It was also used to make mead, a honey-based drink.  Beeswax was an indispensable raw material in crafts. Among other things, it was used to make wax tablets, to seal vessels, and for casting processes in metalworking. In addition, bee products were probably also used in medicine. The tour vividly illustrates how bees were kept, what tools and techniques were used, and the importance of beekeeping in the economic structure of an early Celtic settlement.