Hi bee-lovers !
 
 
> In Roya Valley, south-east France, near Italy, there are old walls
> surrounding beehives built in past centuries, called "naijou"
                                            pronounced "ni-e-joo"
> near Tende or "Ca` d'arbine'" (= bee's house) near la Brigue.
 
> We suppose they were built to defend the beehives from animals.  <<
 
> Who knows of archive papers explaining against what animals they were
> built?
 
   Definitely, it was against (1) brown bears and (2) human!
Bears and Beekeepers : the more than thousand years fight !
 
> For this type of question, you can refer to Eva Crane's excellent
> 1983 book, THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF BEEKEEPING (Cornell Univ. Press,
> Ithaca, NY).
 
Adrian is right !  There is a lot of informations in this book of Eva
Crane.
 
BTW: last Aug. 27th and 28th, she just participated in a workshop
about this subject : "the bees dwelling" at "Tende".  Robert Chevet
reported this in some articles (in french of course) in the beekeeping
journal "Revue Francaise d'Apiculture"
 issue 545 (Nov.1994) pp475-477, L'habitat des abeilles : about the workshop
 issue 546 (Dec.1994) pp541-545, Batir pour les abeilles : enclosures in
     Morocco and Estramadure (Spain) with some color pictures
 issues 547-551 (Jan-May 1995) more on the subject ...
 
(addr of the Revue Francaise d'Apiculture :
       UNAF  rue des Tournelles  26    ph: +33.1.48.87.47.15
       F-75004-PARIS (France)          fx: +33.1.48.87.76.44)
 
Hope this helps !
 
Cheers
Jean-Marie Van Dyck <[log in to unmask]>