A reliable interpretation of date consumption based on the number of seeds can also be hampered by the possibility of trading crushed dates. Such dates might have been destoned, as could be demonstrated by the Kellis agricultural account book, which mentions a price of 2.5 times that of ordinary dates . Crushed dates with their seeds still present were found in the Coptic monastery of Phoebammon . Finally, we also have to consider the possibility of the supply of destoned dates and olives. The recovery of secreted plant remains is facilitated by the sampling of concentrations of feces, such as found in cesspits. Judging by the scarcity of water, it is not likely that fl ushed latrines were present in Berenike and Shenshef. During the excavation seasons, relieving oneself is done either in special tents used as lavatories or behind tamarisk hillocks, both situated at isolated spots to diminish the nuisance of fl ies. If this was practiced in a similar way in Roman times, clone rack it implies that only a fraction of fruits such as pomegranate and fig would be retrieved later on by archaeological research from the dump areas in the city proper.The original vegetation in the vicinity of Roman Berenike would not have differed much from the present one.
Climatic change that resulted in modern aridity came about between the First and Fourth Dynasties, in which the period from 2350 to 500 BC, prior to the Persian and Greek rule, was exceptionally dry . In the Eastern Desert, most of the vegetation would have been confined to the wadi branches and the coastal plain. Wadi branches offered occasional runoff water and had a more permanent supply of underground water, and in the coastal plain the vegetation could benefit from seepage and morning dew. Just like today, the sparse herbaceous vegetation had a limited carrying capacity for wild and domestic animals in most years. This picture is supported by the description of the Eastern Desert by Theophrastus and Pliny , who stated that there were no trees except the acacia, which was even sparsely present due to the lack of water. Although the analysis of wood samples from Berenike, Shenshef, and Kalalat does not allow a quantitative interpretation of possible shifts in the arboreal part of the local vegetation, some interesting conclusions can be deduced from the composition of the samples. The charcoal analysis from an early Ptolemaic industrial dump area of brick-making debris revealed that the dominant species was mangrove , in association with a minor proportion of members of the goose foot family . It is most likely, that we are dealing here with Suaeda monoica, the only woody chenopod of a reasonable size that is still present in small populations on the coastal plain. Its massive exploitation for firewood during the earliest habitation period of Berenike can be explained by the clearance of the local area to facilitate the layout of the area meant for habitation and harbor facilities.
This cutting down offered a temporary supply of low-quality firewood, as was evidenced by several fire experiments. This kind of exploitation is supported by the puffing structures in the charcoal of the Goose foot species, which indicates that fresh, living wood was used . Also in Roman contexts, charcoal and even worked wood and wood chips of Avicennia marina are represented in reasonable quantities. A second mangrove species, Rhizophora mucronata Lam., is also evidenced by wood remains , confirming that a mixed mangrove vegetation was present, possibly even at a closer distance to Berenike than that of today. The most dominant tree in Roman contexts that has been used for making charcoal is the acacia. This tree is still highly valued by nomads as its dense wood easily ignites, has a high caloric value, and does not easily fall apart in a charred condition. Judging by the present vegetation, it is most likely that A. tortilis was used as a local source of fuel. Additionally, charcoal from other acacia species might have been imported from the relatively densely wooded Gebel Elba. It remains an open question as to what extent local acacia trees were exploited. If only dead branches were gathered, as is the current practice among the nomads, the exploitation would have had no impact on their proportion in the vegetation. At the same time, such a selective exploitation would not have matched the demand. Harvesting of most of the tree is even possible, as the plant coppices well, so that there is no need for replanting. But if trees are exploited that way, a harvesting schedule based on a 10-year rotation period is necessary . Moreover, a reasonably dense population should have been available to fulfill the demand, a situation that certainly did not exist. Over exploitation of trees would have resulted in their virtual disappearance within a short period of time. In that case, the current trees have to be considered as recolonized specimens, whose spread must have been a gradual process because the mountain ridges are natural barriers for wind dispersal, and the alternative dispersal by camels takes some time.
According to Oedekoven , many wadis in the Eastern Desert and the Sinai still bear names of trees that once grew there but were intensively cut in the distant past when forests in the Nile Valley were cut in favor of agricultural land. The relict character of the sugar date , the twisted acacia , and the leafl ess tamarix in the Eastern Desert is mentioned by Zahran and Willis . The relict nature of these trees is supported by Hobbs , who refers to bedouins who remember former times in which many more trees were present in particular parts of the desert. Large-scale cutting by local tribes is considered the main reason for over exploitation of densely wooded areas, and prolonged drought periods have a negative impact on the tree cover as well.The Diversity of Cultivated Plants. The cultivated plant species that have been found at Berenike and Shenshef can be categorized according to their possible use: cereals, pulses, vegetables, edible fruits, condiments, oil-yielding plants, and plants used for dyeing and tanning . This categorization is based on the proxy value of the recovered plant remains Although many species can be used in medical treatments, this category is left aside as no clear evidence is available as yet for such use. This is not to say, of course, that as the occasion arose, particular plants might have been used in such a way. Five different cereals have been found at Berenike and Shenshef: hulled six-row barley , hard wheat , sorghum , Johnson grass , and rice . Barley, hard wheat, and sorghum can be considered as staple foods. Despite the relatively low numbers of Johnson grass that were recovered from both sites, the correlation between this potential weed and sorghum is weak, so that it is justifiable to consider it as an independent crop. Also the number of rice kernels and rice chaff is limited, but their presence in both early and late habitation layers indicate that this exotic cereal must have been of special importance. The supply of rice might partly have been intended for an Indian community that possibly dwelled at Berenike in the early Roman period, 4×8 tray grow as suggested by substantial quantities of unearthed Indian-made fine wares and a Tamil-Brahmi graffiti . Papyrological evidence, on the other hand indicates that, at least in the early Roman period, rice was also available in the Fayum. Transport of rice from Berenike further northward to Rome seems, therefore, most likely. Both barley and wheat are represented by grains and threshing remains. The threshing remains consist of chaff and sometimes also fragments of the culm. A quantitative comparison between barley and wheat can be done with respect to both the grains and the rachis nodes. The lemma and palea of both cereals are heavily fragmented in most samples, making it almost impossible to use these fragments for a quantitative comparison of barley and wheat. As for rachis fragments as a basis of comparison, it makes sense to quantify the rachis nodes and not the rachis internodes because the spikelets, in which the grains develop, are attached to the rachis nodes. Therefore, the number of rachis nodes is interchangeable with the number of grains. In comparing six-row barley with hard wheat, each rachis node of barley corresponds with three-grain kernels and each rachis node of hard wheat with an average number of three grain kernels that develop within a spikelet. As shown in Table 4.1, the numbers of grains and rachis nodes are not consistent.
The numbers of grains are relatively low with the exception of barley grains from the early habitation period, which even outnumber the rachis nodes. The rachis nodes seem to present a more reliable picture, all the more so because their numbers are much higher. Based on these rachis nodes, the general picture for Berenike is that the proportion of barley to wheat is 0.6 to 0.8. In Shenshef, barley predominates and its proportion to wheat is 1.2 to 1.0. In contrast with barley and wheat, the inflorescence of sorghum is a panicle in which the fertile spikelets are almost sessile. With the exception of a single grain kernel, all the threshing remains of sorghum that were found consisted of lemmas and paleas only. Lemmas and paleas of sorghum are tougher than those of barley and wheat and for this reason are mostly complete specimens. Hence, the quantification of sorghum could be based on the counting of the lemmas and paleas . Sorghum was only available during the second habitation period. The single chaff fragment recovered from an early context is considered as an intrusion. Judging by the absolute numbers of barley and wheat, the highest consumption of these cereals can be ascribed to the first and second centuries AD. In the second habitation period, barley and wheat were partly replaced by sorghum. Although there is some overlap with respect to the dating of fourth to early sixth centuries AD, it seems that the consumption of cereals had diminished in the last part of this habitation period, which is especially true for Berenike. Although cereals might have been locally cultivated on a limited scale, in which sorghum in particular might have produced some decent yields in years with sufficient winter rains, the bulk of these staple grains would have been obtained from the productive Nile Valley. Based on the analysis of the cereals and their accompanying weed flora, it appears that samples from Berenike that resemble those from Shenshef the most originate from trench BE94-1 , trench BE95-10 and trench BE96- 16 . These trenches are located in the dump area in the northwestern part of the site and all samples are dated to the fi fth century and early sixth centuries AD, the period that coincides with the occupation of Shenshef. The group of pulses is represented by the lentil , the white lupin , the faba bean , the bitter vetch , the mung bean , the grass pea , the chickpea , and the Abyssinian pea . Only the lentil, the white lupin, the faba bean, and the bitter vetch are recorded from both Berenike and Shenshef, and their number of plant remains indicates that the lentil and the white lupin were the primary staple. So far, the other four pulses are only found at Berenike and include import from abroad. This is true for the mung bean, which originates from India, and the Abyssinian pea, which originates from Ethiopia. Like the cereals, the pulses that were part of the staple foods also would have been brought in from the Nile Valley. Vegetables are underrepresented at Berenike and Shenshef, as is the case in most archaeobotanical records. This is especially true for green vegetables, which are mostly harvested before seeds are produced, such as lettuce . Seeds from this species have been found only occasionally and might concern seed stock or, more likely, are produced by bolted lettuce. This makes it difficult to decide to what extent such vegetables were available to the inhabitants of Berenike and Shenshef.