Another bee post!

[thrillingdetectivetales]

This one is all spooky bee facts and mythology for Halloween! Here's an excerpt for you:

As a low moisture, high sugar substance with a generally high level of acidity, honey can have tremendous antibacterial properties, depending on its source. This makes it not only excellent for keeping wounds clean but can make for a highly effective preservative. The ancient Greeks reportedly used honey to embalm their dead, and it’s rumored that Alexander the Great was laid to rest in a golden sarcophagus filled with honey after his sudden passing in Babylon in 323 BC, to keep his body preserved for public presentation as he was transported for burial to Memphis—being the capital of an ancient Egyptian territory, not the modern musical mecca in Tennessee.

According to the Bencao Gangmu (known as the Compendium of Materia Medica in English), a 16th century medical text compiled by Chinese physician Li Shizhen over 27 years of study, these two properties of healing and embalming converged in the Arabian practice of creating a Mellified Man.

You can read it right over here on Substack!