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Honey bees are more important to the ecosystem than we know. Not only do we get healthy honey from them but they are also the most important pollinators. As per a report by Washington Post, a new study shows that the relationship between bees and humans go back farther than the 8500 years than it was thought to be. Apparently, Neolithic era was much more advanced in terms of agriculture than it was thought to be.

A group of scientists led by the researchers from Bristol University studied the pottery from Prehistoric times to understand the link between the honeybees and the humans. It was only in the modern times that the bees were domesticated. However, they were existent long before they were considered useful by the humans. The study that was published in the Journal Nature revealed that the relationship between honeybees and the humans actually date back to the beginning of the Neolithic era, some 8000 years ago. The pottery that has been found in parts of Middle East, North Africa and Europe, it was found the people were using the wax from the bees and perhaps the honey too, says BABW News.

The lead author of the study, Melanie Roffet-Salque and the professor of Biogeochemistry, Richard Evershed, concentrated on finding the materials in those old pots. In the 20 years of the study, the researchers realized that almost all the samples had beeswax present in them and it would be safe to assume when the humans actually began using it. Roffet-Salque said, "Sometimes in papers we would report one single evidence for beeswax in a site, which is fine- but then we though it would be fine to collate everything together and just write a paper," reports Times Gazette.