Beekeeping began in Egypt/North Africa around 9,000 years ago with domestication being depicted in hieroglyphs from about 4500 years ago source.
(Click pictures to link to articles)
After a side conversation in another thread I did some digging and found a picture of a wall of tube hives that might be similar to what was mentioned in the article. The ends of some tubes appear to be closed off with clay/mud with small openings, probably broken away to harvest.
(Click pictures to link to articles)
There is more about clay pot hives here. http://techdissected.com/alternative-tech/lets-explore-new-hive-tech-and-old-hive-designs/
(Click pictures to link to articles)
After a side conversation in another thread I did some digging and found a picture of a wall of tube hives that might be similar to what was mentioned in the article. The ends of some tubes appear to be closed off with clay/mud with small openings, probably broken away to harvest.
(Click pictures to link to articles)
There is more about clay pot hives here. http://techdissected.com/alternative-tech/lets-explore-new-hive-tech-and-old-hive-designs/