At the Weimar Bee museum, Germany, there are various beehives devised by beekeepers since ancient times. This one is a recreation of the earliest type using a hollow tree log. In Nature bees usually create their hives in hollows in trees. Humans would have observed this and It didn't take much imagination to use tree stumps in the same way to keep bees. Easier than climbing a tree to get honey! The inset picture in the note shows the small entrance shaped out of a tree branch - this is to prevent predators getting at the bees or the honey. (The acrylic lid on the entrance is modern - no they didn't have acrylic plastic in ancient times!)