page_title: Beehive stone
section_title: Intended use
hierarchical_section_title: Beehive stone / Intended use
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: H6b, Sirok, Törökasztal
context_page_description: Beehive stones or beehive rocks of Hungary are rock formations, often naturally conical towers, with niches or cavities carved into their sides. A limited number of rocks with niches can be found even close to Budapest, in the area of the Pilis mountains and the Budai-hegység hills, especially on its Tétényi-fennsík plateau. However, the city most densely surrounded by such formations is Eger, in the Bükkalja area.
context_section_description: Despite the lack of significant archaeological and etnographic data, the accepted and publicly known view is still the theory that such rock niches are mementos of forest rock beekeeping in the medieval period, and this way of beekeeping was introduced by Kabars who joined the Hungarians during the so-called Hungarian conquest or by Agrians (a group of Thracian-Illyrian refugees from the Balkan peninsula) in earlier ages.
  The idea of using the rock niches for actual beekeeping would induce some doubts though. The diversity of cardinal directions of niches, as well as niches carved very close to the ground level or to unreachable points, into dark and cold rock fissures or into vertical sides of gullies raise questions. Narrow and shallow or even somewhat downward-facing niches do not seem to be suitable for beekeeping either. Written sources from the 11th century are evidences of the existence of beekeeping activities (in document archives, you can read about forest beekeepers or bee hunters), but the sources do not mention anything about rock beekeeping. Regarding the cultic vs. economic debate, oral lore is not consistent. The mystery of beehive rocks is therefore still unsettled.
  Currently, the purpose of carving the rocks and the intended use of the niches are unknown. So far, the “Who? When? Why?” questions could not be answered without doubts remaining. However, the results of research to date, accompanied by the statistical probability based on evaluation of topographic data, make the idea of the beekeeping use rather doubtful; while “reasons to exclude cultic, sacrificial use of the niches have not been drawn up”.
  Some fundamental questions would still be unresolved however:
  How did the cultic rituals related to the niches look like, and what was their underlying religious formation and mythology?
  What was the time range of carving and using the niches (practicing the cult related to the beehive rocks)?
  Who created the niches, and who practiced the rituals? What sort of population (group, dynasty, ethnic group, nation) can the formation of beehive rock carvings be associated with?
  Due to the lack of charter data and the inconsistency of the folklore, attempts to answer the questions should still be based on – apart from archaeological excavations – topographic data. In the current situation, we can orient ourselves in two aspects:
  One is expanding the known set of “identical analogies”, i.e. finding rimmed niches in other regions and including data associated with the analogies.
  The other is studying other rock carving features found on beehive rocks or in their wider surroundings or phenomenons (stone culture) related to the niches.
  So, reviewing and analyzing different carved features (holes, channels, bowl-shaped pits, rock caldrons) is really important, at least for multiple-aspect comparison and analysis with the known analogies.
caption: Törökasztal [Turk table], Sirok
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