26 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Hundreds Of Mummified Bees inside their Cocoons from the Time of the Pharaohs found in Portugal

Hundreds of mummified bees inside their cocoons have been found on the southwest coast of Portugal, in a new paleontological site on the coast of Odemira.

The discovery published in the international scientific journal Papers in Paleontology states that this method of fossilization is extremely rare and normally the skeleton of these insects rapidly decomposes since it has a chitinous composition, which is an organic compound.

About 2975 years ago, Pharaoh Siamun reigned in Lower Egypt; in China the Zhou Dynasty elapsed; Solomon was to succeed David on the throne of Israel; in the territory that is now Portugal, the tribes were heading towards the end of the Bronze Age. In particular, on the southwest coast of Portugal, where is now Odemira, something strange and rare had just happened: hundreds of bees died inside their cocoons and were preserved in the smallest anatomical detail.

“The degree of preservation of these bees is so exceptional that we were able to identify not only the anatomical details that determine the type of bee, but also its sex and even the supply of monofloral pollen left by the mother when she built the cocoon”, says Carlos Neto de Carvalho, scientific coordinator of Geopark Naturtejo, a UNESCO Global Geopark, and collaborating researcher at Instituto Dom Luiz, at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon  – Ciências ULisboa (Portugal).

Carlos Neto de Carvalho says that the project identified four paleontological sites with a high density of bee cocoon fossils, reaching thousands in a square measuring one meter. These sites were found between Vila Nova de Milfontes and Odeceixe, on the coast of Odemira, a municipality that gave strong support to the execution of this scientific study, allowing its dating by carbon 14.

“With a fossil record of 100 million years of nests and hives attributed to the bee family, the truth is that the fossilization of its user is practically non-existent”, reinforces Andrea Baucon, one of the co-authors of the present work, a paleontologist at the University of Siena (Italy).

 This specimen was extracted from the sediment filling a cocoon. Credit: Andrea Baucon.
This specimen was extracted from the sediment filling a cocoon. Credit: Andrea Baucon.

The cocoons now discovered, produced almost three thousand years ago, preserve as in a sarcophagus the young adults of the Eucera bee that never got to see the light of day. This is one of about 700 species of bees that still exist in mainland Portugal today. The newly discovered paleontological site shows the interior of the cocoons coated with an intricate thread produced by the mother and composed of an organic polymer. Inside, you can sometimes find what’s left of the monofloral pollen left by the mother, with which the larva would have fed in the first times of life. The use of microcomputed tomography allowed to have a perfect and three-dimensional image of the mummified bees inside sealed cocoons.

Bees have more than twenty thousand existing species worldwide and are important pollinators, whose populations have suffered a significant decrease due to human activities and which has been associated with climate change. Understanding the ecological reasons that led to the death and mummification of bee populations nearly three thousand years ago could help to understand and establish resilience strategies to climate change. In the case of the southwest coast, the climatic period that was experienced almost three thousand years ago was marked, in general, by colder and rainier winters than the current ones.

“A sharp decrease in night temperature at the end of winter or a prolonged flooding of the area outside the rainy season could have led to the death, by cold or asphyxiation, and mummification of hundreds of these small bees”, reveals Carlos Neto de Carvalho.

The Naturtejo Geopark of Meseta Meridional, which is part of the UNESCO world network, includes the municipalities of Castelo Branco, Idanha-a-Nova, Oleiros, Penamacor, Proença-a-Nova and Vila Velha de Ródão (in the district of Castelo Branco) and Nisa (Portalegre).

DOI:10.1002/spp2.1518

FACULTY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LISBON

Cover İmage: Image taken under binocular lens, corresponding to specimen details of the dorsum. This specimen was extracted from the sediment filling a cocoon. Photo: Andrea Baucon.

Related Articles

A new study attributes Japanese, Korean and Turkish languages all to a common ancestor in northeastern China

11 November 2021

11 November 2021

According to a new study, modern languages ranging from Japanese and Korean to Turkish and Mongolian may have had a...

Unlucky medieval woman underwent at least two skull surgeries in Longobard Italy

14 February 2023

14 February 2023

A detailed examination of the skull of a woman who lived at the medieval settlement of Castel Trosino in central...

Places to Visit in Oman

6 February 2021

6 February 2021

There are many places to visit in Oman. In this article, we wanted to talk about a wonderful country that...

1700-year-old Roman shoes and craft district found in France

3 June 2023

3 June 2023

An ancient Roman craft district was discovered by archaeologists working in the southwest of the town of Therouanne near a...

The circular-shaped structure unearthed in Uşaklı mound may point to the holy Hittite city of Zippalanda

27 December 2022

27 December 2022

Italian-Turkish team of archaeologists led by the University of Pisa unearthed a mysterious circle-shaped structure from the Hittite era at...

Unique 7,700-year-old figurines were discovered in Ulucak Mound, one of the oldest settlements in Western Anatolia

6 October 2023

6 October 2023

Ulucak Mound (Ulucak Höyük), one of the oldest neolithic settlements dating back to 6800 BC, male and female figurines evaluated...

Oldest US firearm unearthed in Arizona, a 500-year-old bronze cannon linked to Coronado expedition

27 November 2024

27 November 2024

Independent researchers in Arizona have unearthed a bronze cannon linked to the 16th-century expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and...

A Temple Guardian From The 13th Century Found At Cambodia’s Angkor Wat

17 September 2024

17 September 2024

While clearing rubble from a collapsed gate at the Banteay Prei Temple within Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Archaeological Park, workers stumbled...

Archaeologists Discover 8600-year-old Bread at Çatalhöyük May be the Oldest Bread in the World

5 March 2024

5 March 2024

Archaeologists have discovered about 8,600-year-old bread at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in central Turkey. Çatalhöyük is noteworthy because it is...

Archaeologists have discovered a treasure trove of sixth-century coins in ancient Phanagoria in Russia

27 July 2021

27 July 2021

Archaeologists have discovered 80 coins known as Copper staters dating back to the sixth century at Phanagoria on the Black...

10,000-year-old rock art discovered in the Indian village of Medikonda

3 July 2021

3 July 2021

Rock art containing tiger, human and animal figures was found at the Jogulamba Gadwal site in Telangana, India. The New...

Manuscript Portal Brings Medieval Manuscripts from Greifswald Online

24 April 2024

24 April 2024

Greifswald’s oldest books can be accessed digitally via another new portal. The Manuscript Portal (HSP) is the central online portal...

Tombs of elite Wari craftsmen found in the royal necropolis in Castillo de Huarmey, Peru

12 September 2022

12 September 2022

A group of tombs of elite craftsmen of the Wari culture has been discovered at the archaeological site of Castillo...

Cave paintings discovered in western Turkey carry the region’s past back to prehistory

18 December 2021

18 December 2021

During the archaeological survey carried out in and around the ancient city of Alinda in Aydın province in western Turkey,...

Infinite Embrace: New research sheds light on Bronze Age family relationships that link Britain to Luxembourg

30 January 2024

30 January 2024

A new study of early Bronze Age examples from Luxembourg and Britain, led by researchers from the universities of Mainz...