By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline

Published: 13:07 EDT, 11 November 2015 | Updated: 13:11 EDT, 11 November 2015

They are pictured in Egyptian murals and even prehistoric rock art.

Now researchers have proved early farmers used bee products, such as honey and wax, at least 9,000 years ago.

They detected chemical 'fingerprints' of beeswax at multiple Neolithic sites across Europe, including on ancient shards of pottery, to show Stone Age man exploited the industrious insects.

Researchers have proved early farmers exploited bee products, such as honey, at least 9,000 years ago. Although scenes of beekeeping have been found in ancient art, the close association between early farmers and the honeybee has not been proved until now

Researchers at the University of Bristol said that although scenes of beekeeping have been found in ancient art, the close association between early farmers and the honeybee has not been proved until now.

They gathered together evidence of preserved beeswax in pottery vessels used by the first farmers of Europe.

Beeswax is made up of complex lipids that are regular in composition, meaning they can act as a chemical fingerprint on archaeological artefacts such as pottery vessels.

Using residues preserved on 6,400 pottery vessels, the team mapped the association between honeybees and early farmers across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa through prehistory.

The scientists found chemical 'fingerprints' of beeswax at multiple Neolithic sites across Europe (marked above) on ancient shards of pottery. No evidence was found at sites further north than the 57th parallel, which cuts through Scotland and Denmark, suggesting bees could not survive in climates cooler than these

For the study, experts gathered together evidence of preserved beeswax in pottery vessels used by the first farmers of Europe. An example of Neolithic pots (not used in the study) are shown above

Beeswax was detected in cooking pots from an archaeological site in the Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, dating to the seventh millennium BC.

This image shows a hollow log hive of the Cévennes, France, revealing the details of circular comb architecture in honeybees

Dr Mélanie Roffet-Salque, lead author of the paper, said: 'The most obvious reason for exploiting the honeybee would be for honey, as this would have been a rare sweetener for prehistoric people.

'However, beeswax could have been used in its own right for various technological, ritual, cosmetic and medicinal purposes, for example, to waterproof porous ceramic vessels.'

No evidence of beeswax use was found at Neolithic sites further north than the 57th parallel, which cuts through Scotland and Denmark in Europe, suggesting bees could not survive in climates cooler than these.

The findings provide the first ancient map showing the distribution of the honeybee, which is economically and culturally important insect.

It shows the human-honeybee partnership goes back to the beginnings of agriculture.

Professor Evershed explained: 'The lack of a fossil record of the honeybee means it's ecologically invisible for most of the past 10,000 years.

Although evidence from ancient Egyptian murals and prehistoric rock art suggests mankind's association with the honeybee dates back thousands of years, when and where this association emerged has been unknown – until now.

'Our study is the first to provide unequivocal evidence, based solely on a chemical 'fingerprint', for the palaeoecological distribution of an economically and culturally important animal.

It shows widespread exploitation of the honeybee by early farmers and pushes back the chronology of human-honeybee association to substantially earlier dates.'

The paper, published in the journal Nature, is the result of 20 years of research carried out at Bristol's Organic Geochemistry Unit.

Honeybees are pictured in Egyptian murals and even prehistoric rock art. This image shows a relief on a wall of the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt

Britain's honey bees are dying out thanks to poor weather, starvation and disease, experts warn.

This country's unpredicatable climate is to blame for 15 per cent of the animals being wiped out last winter, along with diseases and pests such as Varroa mites which eat infant bees.

A lack of plants producing high-quality pollen and nectar supplies is also causing the creatures to starve to death, placing a strain on Britain's countryside and farms.

Bees are a key link in ensuring plants are pollinated and produce fruit, and are worth more than £200million per year to the economy according to the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA).

The latest survey of 900 hives by the BBKA reveals that colonies in the west of the country were worst hit last winter, with a decline of 18 per cent in population.

That was followed by the North East (15.5 per cent) and Eastern regions (14.7 per cent).

The losses have risen sharply from the 9.6 per cent national drop over the winter of 2013/14.

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