The Tanaka Farm executives are ethical, good people who want the best for their workers and their local community. They have a vision of a good society that includes family farming and opportunities for social advancement for all people. They want to treat their workers well and leave a legacy for their children. They participate in churches and non-profit organizations working toward such hopes in society. They asked for my opinions on how the labor camps could be improved for the workers. After a picker strike in which explicit racist treatment of the pickers in the fields was brought to light, the growers were visibly surprised and upset. They promptly instructed all crop managers to treat all workers with respect. Perhaps instead of blaming the growers, it is more appropriate to understand them as human beings doing the best they can in the midst of an unequal and harsh system. Rob Tanaka is a tall, bearded man with a kind, gentle personality. He is in charge of agricultural production of the farm, planning everything from planting to harvest and overseeing those in charge of each crop. His office is located in a small house in the middle of the berry fields, several miles from the main offices. He spends most of his time in this office, although he also works via laptop in the small lounge of the main office building and visits the fields often. His primary concerns relate directly to farming—weather, insects and birds, soil quality, and labor—although he is also concerned by the survival of the farm. Over several conversations in the small lounge in the main office building, Rob described to me his anxieties related to his work and the farm’s techniques to buffer their vulnerability.In this conversation, Rob indicates his primary worries regarding the most important variables affecting not only his job but the feasibility of the farm business as a whole—labor, weather, urban growth, regulations, pe grow bag and the market. He explains that this family farm has developed a ‘‘portfolio of crops’’ in order to buffer their vulnerability to the market.

In another conversation, Rob told me about a recent meeting of the farm executives about being a ‘‘great company.’’ He explained that every time he heard the word ‘‘great’’ all he could see in the discussion was profitability to shareholders. This made him angry and he said, ‘‘We already are a great company, and if this is what being a great company means, then I want to be a good company.’’ He described his frustration with the farm becoming more corporate and bureaucratic. He liked it more when it was a small family business and he ‘‘didn’t have to go through all these hoops to write a check.’’ These excerpts show Rob Tanaka concerned with the farm’s survival for future generations in the midst of a difficult market while resisting becoming another corporate agribusiness.Another of the executives is Tom, a lean white man in his late 40s brought in by the Tanaka family to help the farm compete on the international small fruit market. Tom has an office in the trailer with the other main executive offices, although he has taken more care to decorate it than most, proudly displaying a colorful painting of workers picking strawberries in China—one of the very places against which he is competing. Previously, Tom was in charge of processing and marketing for a large Mexican strawberry producer. At the Tanaka Farm, his job starts before sunrise, when he calls his competitors and potential buyers in Poland, China, and then Chile. Later in the day, he can take breaks to meet friends or eat out. He daily attempts to find a competitive advantage by changing the fruit grown in various fields or by buying fruit from other farms to process and then sell. Over the course of several months, Tom describes the stark competitive disadvantages of the farm in domestic and global terms.Tom paints a stark picture of the effects of global free markets in the context of large economic inequalities. He worries daily about competition with the Califtornia variety of berries along with the stretching of its flavor via food science. Although Tom is dedicated to his job, starting work before the sun rises, he does not have much hope for the future of berry farms in the Pacific Northwest nor in the United States in general. The farm executives are anxious to ensure the survival of the farm for future generations in the midst of bleak economic trends. They work long days, worrying about many variables only partially within their control and doing their best to run a family farm that treats its workers well. They are very aware of their own structural vulnerability. They also have some control over their own schedules.

They take breaks when they choose to eat or work out, talk on the phone or meet with a friend. They have comfortable houses, private and clean indoor bathrooms and kitchens, insulation and heating, and quiet. They have private indoor offices with phones and computers as well as employees ‘‘under’’ them .Most of the administrative assistants are white, along with a few Latino US citizens. All are female. They work seated at desks in open spaces without privacy. They are in charge of reception, interacting with white local residents and business people as well as with Mexican farm workers. Sally is the year-round front desk receptionist. She is a lean, white woman, approximately 40 years old, often smiling. She grew up in the same town in which the farm is located and lives with her husband and children in a relatively small house. Sally tries to treat the workers well and turning around the desk when she first arrived was one step in this direction. She helped arrange loans for the Mexican farm workers one year when the picking date was moved back and the workers were living out of their cars, waiting without money or food. Crew bosses and farm executives regularly reprimand her for being too nice to the workers. She has been told to be ‘‘more quick,’’ ‘‘less friendly.’’ In addition, she feels disrespected by the people ‘‘above her’’ , treated like a ‘‘peon.’’ They sometimes give her advice on her work or give her jobs to do without the common courtesies of ‘‘please’’ or ‘‘thank you.’’ Maria is 30, a bilingual Latina from Texas. Her great grandparents moved to the United States from Mexico. She lives in the nearest labor camp with heat and insulation. She works several positions May through November, sometimes at the front desk with Sally, sometimes in the portable unit where pickers can ask questions and pick up mail in the afternoon. On Fridays, she works in the wooden shed where paychecks are passed out to workers in a long line. Her first summers on the farm, including the summer she was pregnant, she picked berries and worked with a hoe. After four years with the hoe, she was moved up to desk work due largely to her ability to speak English fluently. Like many other workers on the farm, she first heard of indigenous Mexicans while working on the farm. She explained her work to me while we sat in the portable, occasionally interrupted by a picker seeking their mail.

The crop managers are in charge of all details involved in the efficient production of a specific crop, from plowing to planting, pruning to spraying, picking to delivery, growing bags and finally to processing. They have private offices in the field house amidst the berry fields nearby the largest labor camp, although they also spend a fair amount of time walking through the fields overseeing. During harvest, they begin by 5 a.m. seven days a week and finish in the early evening. They can take a break when they choose to eat, run errands, or go quickly home. The crop managers worry about the availability of machinery, the effects of weather on the crops, and the docility of their labor force. They have some control over how much the pickers are paid, and they have several field bosses below them enforcing their instructions. Jeff is a 30-year-old white man who recently finished a degree in agricultural marketing at a university in Califtornia. He manages blueberries and raspberries. Jeff told me about his job as he drove his large white pick-up with two large dogs in back. We drove to an agriculture store to buy large concrete drains for the blueberry fields and to Costco to buy tri-tip steaks for a potluck at his church. He explained several simultaneous tasks in the raspberry fields to illustrate the many things a crop manager has to oversee. The thing that causes him the most anxiety is having multiple bosses on a family farm without a strict chain of command. He also worries about weather, and about harvest crews: ‘‘It is what it is, you know. Sometimes people walk out and sometimes people pick. It’s kind of like the weather, you can’t really predict it and you don’t really have control over it, but usually it ends up working out all right.’’ He went on, ‘‘We make the prices fair, so if the crew walks out [on strike], we just say ‘hey, we’ll be here tomorrow’ and that’s the way it is. They can come back if they want.’’ He told me that all the people on raspberry machines are Latinos from Texas whereas those picking blueberries are ‘‘O-hacan’’ , although he also told me that he cannot really tell the difference. That week, Jeff was in the midst of budgeting for next year, trying to predict the crop yield. He predicts based on bud count: for each fruit bud in the fall, he expects seven berries the following summer, although a freeze could make the fruit smaller or kill the buds altogether.After I turned off my tape recorder, Scott wanted to hear more about my interest in crossing the border with some of the Triqui indigenous Oaxacan workers. First, he told me I should get permission from the federal government. Later, he changed his mind and said the problem with that would be that they would ask for all my information about where I crossed. He was afraid the government would then shut down that route ‘‘and we wouldn’t have any workers anymore.’’ He explained that almost 90 percent of the pickers are undocumented. The profiles of the crop managers bring into focus the practical attempts from the management to run a good, ethical farm in the midst of difficult conditions. In addition, Scott is clearly concerned about the direct effects of immigration and border policies on his labor force. Like many farmers I interviewed, he knows that current US farming practices would be impossible without undocumented Latin American migrant workers.Several supervisors, often called ‘‘crew bosses,’’ work under each crop manager. Each directs a crew of 10 to 20 pickers. They walk through the fields, inspecting and telling workers to pick more quickly and carefully. The crew bosses are under constant supervision from the crop managers, although they can take short bathroom breaks and they often carry on light-hearted conversations with coworkers. Most crew bosses are US Latinos, with a few mestizo Mexicans and one Mixteco indigenous Oaxacan. They live in the insulated, year-round labor camp. Some of the crew bosses call the Oaxacan workers derogatory names. The crew boss most often accused by pickers of such racist treatment has a daughter, Barbara, who is also a crew boss. Barbara is a bilingual Latina from Texas in her early twenties who has worked the harvest at the farm for 11 years. She attends a community college in Texas every spring and hopes to become a history teacher. She is upset that other crew bosses call Oaxacan people pinche Oaxaco or Indio estupido . She explains to me that Oaxacans are afraid to complain or demand better working conditions because they do not want to lose their jobs. She describes a farm policy stating that if a crew boss fires a picker, they can never be hired by anyone else on the farm. She explains, ‘‘It’s unfair. I think there should be checks and balances.’’ Her family learned English in Texas as well as in the farm-sponsored English classes each night after work.

The results of the PCoA analysis with 34 markers also produced three groups. The species group was clearly separated from the other two groups. The distinction between the O34-16 group and the TSL group was less clear . The O34-16 group contained nearly all of the subsp. sylvestris accessions, however within that group, there was no clear distinction between the cultivated and wild forms . To differentiate the wild sylvestris accessions from cultivated sativa forms, further analyses focused on only the O34-16 group. The Ward and UPGMA hierarchical clustering methods divided the 165 accessions of the O34-16 group into two clades. Seventy-six cultivated V. vinifera subsp. sativa accessions, including the powdery mildew resistant ‘Matrassa’ were in one group, and the second group consisted of 89 sativa and sylvestris accessions. When the Ward clustering method was applied to this second group of mixed accessions, there were again two clades. These four V. vinifera accessions are ancient cultivars and are likely transitional forms with the wild ancestor sylvestris. The powdery mildew resistant accession DVIT3351.27 was in this clade. The second clade had three less well-defined sub groups: the first contained six sylvestris accessions including the powdery mildew resistant accession O34-16; the second group contained accessions of V. vinifera subsp. sativa collected from Pakistan and Turkmenistan and one accession labeled V. jacquemontii; and the third group was a mix of wild sylvestris or feral types that were collected from Iran, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Russia, vertical farming system and five incorrectly identified accessions – three of which were labeled as V. jacquemontii, and the other two were collected from China.

Two distinct clades were revealed when clustering analysis was applied to the 40 wild sylvestris accessions . The first clade contained ten sylvestris accessions obtained from Turkmenistan, four accessions from Iran and two from Afghanistan. The Turkmenistan accessions were collected from the Kopet Dag mountain range, which defines the border between Turkmenistan and Iran on the east of the Caspian Sea. The powdery mildew resistant accession O34-16, collected near the town of Shirvan, Iran, was in this clade. Shirvan is near Mashhad, an important trade hub on the ancient silk route located on the other side of the Kopet Dag mountain range . Therefore, it was not surprising to see these accessions positioned in one clade. The second clade consisted of accessions collected from Georgia, Armenia and Iran. The powdery mildew resistant sylvestris accession DVIT3351.27, collected from Alaverdi, Armenia, was in this group. These results in conjunction with analyses that included the entire O34- 16 group suggest that the two wild sylvestris accessions could have acquired powdery mildew resistance from different genetic backgrounds. Gene diversity indices for each group are shown in Table 2. The average FIS value for the Species group was higher than the other two groups. This group consisted of only 29 accessions as compared to 165 accessions in the O34-16 group and 186 accessions in the TSL group. The average FIS for the O34-16 group was 0.10; expected heterozygosity was higher than observed for all but one of the 34 markers. The average near zero FIS value for the TSL group suggests that they are a panmictic population in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Values for the differentiation index among the three groups were very low . These results indicate that there is no clear differentiation among these groups due to the presence of transitional forms that bridge the groups and indicate active gene flow among them, implying that domestication and selection is underway.Because two of the newly discovered powdery mildew resistant accessions were collected as sylvestris, it was important to confirm their true type based on morphological traits. Flower sex phenotype and seed morphology are two key criteria used to differentiate subsp. sylvestris from cultivated sativa forms .

The flower phenotype of the subsp. sylvestris accessions collected from Armenia, Georgia and Turkmenistan could not be determined because they were young potted plants. Flower phenotype data for 15 wild V. vinifera accessions was obtained from GRIN, the National Germplasm Resource Information Network [31]. A combination of two DNA markers was used to differentiate male, hermaphrodite and female flower phenotype for the set of 380 accessions. Field phenotypic observations for the 95 accessions from the Vassal collection matched the flower phenotype predicted by DNA analysis with only one exception – ‘Yhsouh ali’ , which was recorded as a female, but DNA analysis indicated it was a hermaphrodite. These test results indicate that the combination of both markers is a reliable system to determine flower phenotype. DNA marker-based flower phenotyping of the 40 wild forms of V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris and all ten newly discovered powdery mildew resistant accessions are presented in Table 4; the results for all other accessions are presented in Additional file 11: Table S10. The flower phenotype was undetermined for 11 accessions due to ampliftication failure with one or both markers. Phenotypic observations differed from genotypic results for only three accessions. Two accessions in the species group, C-166-025 and DVIT1159.3, are recorded as male, but are hermaphrodite based on the DNA analysis. The third anomaly was the cultivar ‘Neeli’ , which was scored as a hermaphrodite, but is listed as a female plant in the GRIN database. DNA marker analysis of flower sex in the V. vinifera subsp. sativa group of cultivars found that 223 were hermaphrodite, 57 were female, and five were identified as male . One of the five males, ‘Kala Kostan’ is recorded as a female in GRIN; the flower phenotype could not be verified for the other four genotypically male cultivars. Eighteen of the 40 V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris accessions were male, including newly identified powdery mildew resistant accession, DVIT3351.27. Eight accessions were female, including resistant accession O34-16 . Fourteen others were hermaphrodite. Seeds were extracted from ten of the wild sylvestris that H.P. Olmo collected from Iran and Afghanistan .

The combined results from seed morphology and flower sex phenotyping, revealed that 14 accessions designated as sylvestris are likely not pure sylvestris, but instead hybridized forms of native wild species and cultivated varieties. interestingly, three accessions from H.P. Olmo’s O series, which are male, based on genotypic analysis, bear fruit . The flower phenotype of the accession O34-26 was scored differently in each of three years on GRIN. Similarly, observations of the flower phenotype for O34-55on GRIN varied from year-to-year between hermaphrodite and female. O35-47, the third genotypically male accession has been recorded as a hermaphrodite. The flower sex of the 12 powdery mildew resistant accessions was also determined: the sativa accessions ‘Husseine’ ‘Soïaki’, ‘Sochal’, and ‘Vassarga tchernaia’ are female vines; the other six including ‘Kishmish vatkana’ and ‘Karadzhandal’ are hermaphrodites . Two of the new powdery mildew resistant accessions are clearly V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris. O34-16 is a female vine with obvious wild type seed morphology . The accession DVIT3351.27 is a male flowered V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris.In this study, we exploited available genetic information on the powdery mildew resistance locus Ren1 to identify additional germplasm that shared a Ren1-like local haplotype, and then attempted to clarify the evolution of powdery mildew resistance and its domestication in cultivated V. vinifera subsp. sativa. Ten new powdery mildew resistant accessions were discovered that possess a Ren1-like local haplotype, which was earlier identified in ‘Kishmish vatkana’ and ‘Dzhandzhal kara’ from Central Asia. We discovered that powdery mildew resistance is present in two V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris accessions, a taxon considered to be the progenitor of the cultivated form sativa. Four of the resistant accessions ‘Vassarga tchernaia’, ‘Chirai ’, ‘Late Vavilov’ and ‘Khalchili’ are obscure varieties with few records in the ViThis International Variety Catalog or the European ViThis database. The first three accessions were obtained from germplasm collections in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, respectively; Harold P. Olmo collected ‘Khalchili’ from Afghanistan in 1948. The other four resistant sativa accessions are better known. ‘Husseine’ was also collected from Afghanistan and it is available worldwide with records in 20 germplasm collections with 61 synonyms. ‘Matrassa’ was acquired from the Azerbaijan collection, and is available in 15 collections with 26 synonyms. ‘Soïaki’ is found in 10 collections with 3 synonyms. ‘Matrassa’ and ‘Soïaki’ are listed by Russian grape breeders as cultivars for high quality table, sparkling and dessert wines. The eighth resistant sativa accession ‘Sochal’ is only held at two collection sites in the USA. Plant inventory records indicate that cuttings of ‘Sochal’ were obtained in 1971 from the N. I. Vavilov institute of Plant industry, Leningrad. Eight of the newly identified accessions carrying Ren1-like local haplotypes were acquired from five neighboring countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, all major junctions for trade on the ancient silk route for thousands of years. It is not hard to believe that selected grape germplasm, vertical farming racks favored for desirable fruit characteristics, was moved back and forth in the form of seeds and cuttings from one region to another, where they were likely crossed with local varieties in remote isolated valleys and villages in different regions. In addition to the identification of eight new powdery mildew resistant accessions, this study also gathered information on the genealogical relationships. A likelihood based method that determines potential parent progeny relationships without any prior knowledge revealed four first-degree relationships. We identified ‘Vassarga tchernaia’ as the female parent of ‘Kishmish vatkana’ and verified ‘Thompson seedless’ as the male parent. ‘Vassarga tchernaia’ and ‘Sochal’ shared a first-degree relationship, sharing at least one allele at 42 markers. Both are female vines with reflexed stamens and seeded fruit. It is difficult to determine the direction of the relationship between ‘Sochal’ and ‘Vassarga tchernaia’. Nevertheless, both of them are female vines, resistant to powdery mildew, and produce seeded fruit. ‘Sochal’, ‘Vassarga tchernaia’ and ‘Kismish vatkana’ are not found in historical collection/ breeding records and may have been disregarded due to undesirable fruit attributes, e.g. loose clusters, and small seeded berries, which did not saThisfy selection criteria for that particular region.

The other two first-degree relationships identified in this study were between ‘Late Vavilov’ and ‘Karadzhandal’, and between ‘Khalchili’ and the powdery mildew susceptible ‘Yarghouti’. All four arehermaphrodites and only ‘Karadzhandal’ is well known with a recorded history. One of the important findings of this study is that four of the new powdery mildew resistant cultivars ‘Chirai obak’, ‘Husseine’, ‘Matrassa’ and ‘Soiaki’ are not directly related to any other accession in this study or in the complete Vassal collection. This implies that the story of powdery mildew resistance in cultivated varieties is complex and what we have revealed in this study may not be the complete picture due to extinction or missing cultivars in our collections. It is likely that a thorough search of germplasm collections in Central Asia would unearth more resistant germplasm. With the exception of ‘Matrassa’, STRUCTURE placed all seven new subsp. sativa powdery mildew resistant cultivars in the TSL group, even though they were collected from different regions of Central Asia. These results suggest that selection and active flow of desirable plant material was common in this region of grape domestication and that multiple breeding efforts were underway to saThisfy the local tastes for quality grapes. The TSL group also indicates that breeding efforts were also directed at seedlessness as ‘Thompson seedless’, one of the ancient varieties, was a popular parent for a large number of table grape cultivars. Two of the resistant accessions in this study belong to the subsp. sylvestris, which prompts many questions. Are these two accessions truly wild sylvestris that have never been cultivated or are they hybrids between wild and cultivated forms? What is the direction of the gene flow for powdery mildew resistance – did these two sylvestris accessions acquire resistance from cultivated forms or did the resistance come from wild types to cultivated forms? O34-16 is a female vine with seeded fruit, and seed shape typical of the sylvestris type grapes – small round seeds and short beaks. The accession DVIT3351.27 is a male vine. Dioecy is one of the key traits distinguishing the wild sylvestris from the cultivated sativa. Additionally, the male flower phenotype is only associated with wild ViThis species. According to the model of Antcliftf , flower phenotype is controlled by a single major locus with three alleles: male dominant to hermaphrodite , which is dominant to the female . In the wild, one should find only male and female vines in the absence of gene flow from hermaphroditic cultivated varieties.

Further analysis was based on 403 unique accessions: 296 from the Davis collections and 107 from the INRA Domaine de Vassal germplasm collection. Additional file 3: Table S3 presents the fingerprint profiles of the 403 unique accessions based on 19 SSR markers – one marker from each grape chromosome. Twenty-three accessions were removed from the study set. The number of alleles per marker and percent of missing data were calculated for the remaining 380 genotypes with 34 markers . Based on the collection records, the study set of 380 unique accessions consisted of 306 genotypes of V. vinifera subsp. sativa, 40 accessions of V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris, and 34 accessions of ViThis species from northern Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. A minimum of 9 and maximum of 44 alleles were observed with SSR markers VVIq52 and VVIv67, respectively. The average number of alleles for all markers was 22. There were 7 markers with 5% or more accessions that had missing data .Prior to phenotypic evaluation for powdery mildew resistance, the entire set of 403 accessions was genotyped for linkage with the powdery mildew resistance locus Ren1 at four SSR marker, which span 8.1 cM genetic block on chromosome 13. The resistance linked allele of 260 defined by marker VMCNg4e10.1 was observed in 47 accessions that included V. amurensis, V. romanetii, Muscadinia rotundifolia and wild V. vinifera subp. sylvestris accessions. The majority of the accessions with allele 260 for marker VMCNg4e10.1 did not have allele 216 at the marker UDV124. However, cut flower bucket a missing allele at either marker could have been due to a recombination event. Eleven accessions, including ‘Karadzhandal’ and ‘Kishmish vatkana’ had alleles that are in linkage with the Ren1 locus at the two distal markers, VMCNg4e10.1 and UDV124 that are in linkage with the Ren1 locus .

The germplasm set was then evaluated for alleles at sc47-18 and SC08-0071-014 that flank each side and co-segregates with the Ren1 locus. ‘Karadzhandal’ and ‘Kishmish vatkana’ fingerprint profiles were used to determine whether the allele of 249 defined by the marker sc47-18 and the allele of 143 defined by the marker SC08-0071-014 were linked to resistance. These are the two alleles that co-segregate with the Ren1. Allele 249 for marker sc47-18 was common: 80 of the 403 accessions shared it. Nearly all of the 47 accessions that carried the allele 260 for marker VMCNg4e10.1 also had allele 249 for marker sc47-18, confirming the tight linkage between these two markers . The allele 143 for marker SC08-0071-014 was rare; only 17 accessions in the entire data set carried it . Six accessions had the allele 143 for marker SC8-0071-014, but did not carry the resistance associated alleles at all tested markers . ‘Khalchili’ and ‘Khwangi’ had 143 flanked by 249 at sc47-18. Two of the V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris accessions had alleles 143 and 260 on the opposing flanks for marker VMCNg4e10.1; ‘Matrassa’ and a third sylvestris accession had the 143 allele and no resistance associated allele on the opposite flank. These six accessions are potential recombinants. Two Chinese species accessions, V. romanetii and V. yenshanensis had the 143 allele, but neither of them carried a resistance-associated allele at the other three markers. In the case of these two examples, we speculate that the presence of the 143 allele is either due to size homoplasy, or the alleles at other markers are lost due to recombinations. In 2009 and 2010, resistance to powdery mildew was evaluated on a 0 to 5 scale on all accessions from Davis that carried alleles linked to resistance at one or more markers . Four other accessions were evaluated in 2012 . The year effect was significant; disease pressure was more severe in 2010 . However, the susceptible controls were highly susceptible and resistant controls had no or minor symptoms in three test years . The location in the field test plot was not significant, indicating that the close-spaced field evaluation site with no spray was an efficient and cost effective way to screen for resistance .

‘Karadzhandal’, a known powdery mildew resistance accession was evaluated both years and had a powdery mildew resistance score of < 1. ‘Kishmish vatkana’ the other previously known powdery mildew resistant accession was under quarantine as part of the importation process and could not be evaluated. Accessions with Ren1-linked alleles at only one of the flanking markers exhibited no resistance to powdery mildew in the field test . The V. vinifera subsp. sativa cultivars: ‘Husseine’, ‘Khalchili’, ‘Late Vavilov’ and ‘Sochal’ were resistant. These four accessions had mean scores for leaf and cane PM symptoms ranging from 1.08 – 2.42 in 2009 and 0.83 – 2.42 in 2010 . In 2012, in a much smaller evaluation, two accessions from wild V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris were identified as resistant from field evaluations: O34-16, collected from Shiravan, Iran, had all four resistance-linked alleles; and DVIT3351.27, collected from Armenia, had the resistance allele at one of the flanking markers on each side. Mean leaf symptoms scores were 0.4 and 0.7 for DVIT3351.21 and O34-16, respectively . The powdery mildew resistant accession ‘Karadzhandal’ at Davis had similar marker profile to accession ‘Kara djandjal’ and the newly identified resistant accession ‘Husseine’ had identical marker profile to ‘Kandari noir’ inthe Vassal collection. Both of these accessions were found to be resistant in greenhouse screens carried out at Vassal. ‘Chirai oback’ and ‘Vassarga tchernaia’, which had all four Ren1-linked SSR marker alleles, were resistant based on greenhouse screening in France. The other two powdery mildew resistant accessions were ‘Soïaki’, which had resistance-linked alleles with four markers, and ‘Matrassa’, which had resistance-linked alleles with two markers on one side, have not been evaluated for disease symptoms. In total, this study identified and verified eight new accessions that are powdery mildew resistant. ‘Soïaki’ and ‘Matrassa’ were identified as potentially resistant based on marker analysis. Their disease resistance needs to be verified in a field or greenhouse screen.Probability of identity analysis found that nine markers were sufficient to identify unique accessions in the study set . The paternity exclusion probability for a single locus ranged from 10.6% to 72.6% . A cumulated probability of exclusion of 100% was reached using only 7 markers for paternity and 3 markers for a parent pair. The simulation for parentage analysis identified a LOD score threshold of 5.0 to assess a potential single parent and 4.0 to assess a parent pair with 34 SSR markers. Six newly identified resistant accessions ‘Husseine’, ‘Chirai obak’, DVIT3351.27, O34-16, ‘Soïaki’ and ‘Matrassa’ were not related to any other accession in the set; two of these are V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris.

The presence of powdery mildew resistance in unrelated genetic backgrounds is a very important result of this study that suggests that powdery mildew resistance in Central Asia is complex and potentially represent orthologous and paralogous homology for the Ren1 locus, first identified in ‘Karadzhandal’ and ‘Kishmish vatkana’. A second important inference from these results is that there maybe many more powdery mildew resistant accessions within V. vinifera subsp. sativa and Central Asian ViThis species and further exploration is needed. This resistance could be the result of intentional breeding efforts involving material collected and curated in the early 1900s at multiple institutes set up by the Russian geneticist Vavilov, or the result of unintentional breeding and selection of resistant material in an earlier period of domestication and selection over thousands of years. More importantly, identification of powdery mildew resistance in accessions of V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris indicates that the resistance is present in wild germplasm. There were four parent-progeny relationships identified in this study; two involved the previously published powdery mildew resistant accessions . ‘Vassarga tchernaia’ was conclusively identified as the female parent of ‘Kishmish vatkana’; it also shared a parent-progeny relationship with ‘Sochal’ although the direction of the cross is unknown. ‘Karadzhandal’ and ‘Late Vavilov’ share one or both alleles with all 42 SSR markers . The powdery mildew resistant accession ‘Khalchili’ was shown to have a first-degree relationship to ‘Yarghouti’ .A 620 bp region that includes the resistance associated 143 bp allele from marker SC8-0071-014 was sequenced for the 12 powdery mildew resistant accessions and two susceptible V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris . Two accessions of Chinese species that had a 143 bp fragment at SC8-0071-014 were also sequenced. The sequences were nearly identical for all fourteen V. vinifera accessions except for occasional single nucleotide polymorphisms between both unrelated and genetically related accessions. The sequences of the two Chinese species, V. romanetii and V. yenshanensis were very different from one another and from the V. vinifera sequence, obvious examples of size homoplasy, where two alleles are identical in size but result from independent events .For the 12 powdery mildew resistant accessions, including the two previous known powdery mildew resistant accessions ‘Kishmish vatkana’ and ‘Karadzhandal’, genetic analysis was expanded to a 26 cM genomic block with six SSR markers including the Ren1 region . Six of the newly identified powdery mildew resistant accessions, including O34-16, a V. vinifera subsp. sylvestris, had similar alleles similar to ‘Kishmish vatkana’, flower display buckets and ‘Karadzhandal’ with six SSR markers . SSR marker allelic comparison of two other resistant accessions indicated that a recombination event had occurred between markers at different junctions. The wild subsp. sylvestris accession, DVIT3351.27 had complex allelic combination of markers surrounding the Ren1 region suggesting a different genetic origin of powdery mildew resistance.The genetic diversity of the core set of 380 Central Asian accessions was evaluated with hierarchical clustering , principle coordinate analysis , and a model-based clustering method implemented in the program STRUCTURE. All three analysis methods generated three groups with data from 19 or 34 markers. The delta K value calculated from the output of STRUCTURE was 45.0 at K = 3 compared to less than 5.0 at all other values of K. The three groups determined by PCoA were similar to those produced by STRUCTURE . The Q-values assigned by STRUCTURE for 380 accessions in three groups are displayed in Additional file 9: Table S9. Group A contained 29 ViThis species accessions, nearly all of which originated in China. The Q-value for membership in this group was 0.90 or above for 25 accessions. ViThis yenshanensis and B-166-016, an accession labeled as ViThis spp., both collected from China had Q-values split between the group A and B. A second V. yenshanensis accession, also collected from China, had Q values split between group A and C. ‘Khir Ghuluman’, collected by H.P. Olmo in Afghanistan, had Q-values split among all three groups indicating it was a possible hybrid of a local species and cultivated varieties. ‘Khir Ghuluman’ was labeled as V. vinifera, presumably because it is a cultivated variety in Afghanistan. None of the previous and newly identified powdery mildew resistant accessions were in this group. Group B contained 165 samples, a mix of both V. vinifera cultivars and wild V. vinifera subsp. Sylvestris accessions. Three new powdery mildew resistant accessions were placed in this group with Q-values of 0.80 and higher. O34-16 and DVIT3351.27 were collected as subsp. sylvestris, and ‘Matrassa’ was collected as subsp. sativa. For clarity, this group will be referred to as O34-16 from this point onward in the manuscript. Thirty nine accessions collected as subsp. sylvestris were in this group, 36 of which had Q-values of 0.80 or higher. Two Chinese ViThis species accessions, 588650.a and B-166-019 were in this group, and are most likely hybridized forms. All four accessions of V. jacquemontii collected from Pakistan were also in this group. The Q values of these accessions, one as high as 0.97, suggest that these accessions are not pure species and may be hybrid or mislabeled forms . Group C was named after ‘Thompson seedless’ to indicate that the group consists primarily of table grape cultivars. Two previously identified and seven of the new powdery mildew resistant accessions were in this group . The group consisted of 185 accessions labeled as V. vinifera subsp. sativa and one accession of subsp. sylvestris – O35-64 collected from Iran by H.P. Olmo. The Q values for this particular accession placed it in groups A and C. ‘Kala Khostan’ with a group C Q-value of 0.66 is the only other accession in this group with association to the species group. All but 10 of the remaining 184 accessions had group TSL Q-values of 0.70 or higher .

Strangely enough, they were not cut in such a way to take advantage of the direction of the lumina. To prevent air from coming into the amphora or moisture leaking out of it, the lumina should be at right angles to the neck of the bottle or amphora. They were oriented in the longitudinal direction of the bottleneck instead. An explanation is that the stoppers were of a reasonable size making it almost impossible to cut them in the proper way from a cork layer, which is limited in thickness. No other examples of cork stoppers are known from such an early period. Before filling the vessels, the inside could have been daubed with pitch, as is described by, for example, Columella for the storage of figs , pears , and vinegar . Apicius recommends the same treatment for the storage of pot herbs . Like present-day coating of cans with tin, this daubing with pitch prevents the exchange of air and microorganisms, too. But such a treatment could not be performed in a sterile environment, and therefore the storage life of the content remained limited. Special attention has to be paid to fruits such as pomegranates, grapes, apples, and pears that produce the gas ethylene, a natural end product of respiration. This gas effects fruit maturation, which is disadvantageous if the fruit has to be stored for a good while. Today, special precautionary measures are taken against this undesired maturation by influencing the atmosphere of storage rooms and by not reusing the same packaging material. The storage life of such fruit is benefited by removing specimens that have already started to decay, as is frequently mentioned in classical sources dealing with food preservation . Of special interest is Columella’s statement of “a general rule that above all things apples and grapes should not be laid up in the same place or near one another that the odor of the apples can reach the grapes. For exhalations of this kind quickly spoil the grapes.” . In fact, this empirical advice almost expresses present-day knowledge on this particular maturation process.Alcohol is a waste product of fermentation processes and is typical of anaerobic yeasts.

Food and fruit juices can be preserved by encouraging the growth of such microorganisms because the alcohol can reach a lethal concentration for all kinds of microorganisms. Alcoholic drinks can be used to preserve fruit, cut flower transport bucket although they will lose color unless they are sterilized. Lactic fermentation is another useful means of food preservation. Incomplete fermentation of sugar results in the production of lactic acid. As a result, the food acidity is lowered. Most enzymes are proteins, which are especially sensitive to relatively mild changes in pH. As both molecules are main components of organisms, their inactivity or destruction is vitally important. Enzyme activity increases the rate of all kinds of chemical reactions in a cell; the enzymes are highly specific in the reactions they catalyze. Enzymes are only active in a certain range of acidity with a specific optimum. Outside this temperature range the enzyme takes on a different three-dimensional form and loses its biological activity. A similar damage to enzymes is caused by changes in temperature. Wine, vinegar, and most fruits have low pH values at which most microorganisms will not grow. The normal storage life of fruits is one to two weeks. Changing the acidity of food can be achieved by adding sour mediums, such as sour milk, wine vinegar, beer vinegar, and even fig vinegar. Vegetables and fruits are the major foods that are preserved in this way. Lactic acid not only delays the growth of microorganisms, but it also improves the taste of the food. Adding salt is not essential, and aromatic herbs are added to improve the flavor. Columella enumerates a number of vegetables that can be preserved in a mixture of vinegar and brine. The use of spices is also effective in the preservation of food. Billing and Sherman , who studied the use of spices in relation to meat-based recipes, could demonstrate that spices inhibit or even kill food spoiling microorganisms. Spices that proved to be very effective were, among others, garlic , onion , cinnamon , cumin , and lemongrass .

The most effective one was garlic, a plant that is well represented in the Berenike record. Black pepper, on the other hand, was among the least effective bacteriocides: it inhibited only 38 percent of the bacteria studied. The use of spices as preservatives as well as for improving the flavor is mentioned, for example, in the cookery book of Apicius.Cooling and heating are methods that block the biological activity of the enzymes by exceeding the temperature range. In temperate regions one could take advantage of the cold winters and food could be preserved in snow. According to Columella , vessels containing food should not be exposed to the sun, but stored as cold and dry as possible to prevent food from becoming moldy and decaying. In the distant past, food was stored in icehouses, whereas today refrigerators and deep freezers are used instead. The dolium with peppercorns found in Berenike was, probably for similar reasons, buried in the ground. Although lowering the temperature of food is a most effective way of slowing down the process of aging without affecting the characteristic features such as taste and color, it is not realistic for most of the year in Berenike. Therefore, other treatments that prolonged the storage life must have been applied to especially perishable fruits. Heating food is only effective in combination with preservation methods that void recontamination. Boiling food for some time will not make it germ free, and as the food cools down, microorganisms will duplicate again as the temperature nears the optimum for microorganisms.By selecting only perfect specimens, a quick decomposition resulting from contagious diseases is prevented. Further contamination with microorganisms is prevented by using rainwater that has been boiled for a considerable time and by sealing the storage vessel. A cool place obviously slows down the increase of the microorganisms. With respect to apples, pears, quinces, plums, cherries, and figs, Apicius states that the fruit should be picked with stems . A similar procedure is recommended by Columella for every fruit that has to be stored for a long time . He states that grapes may remain green for as much as a year if the pedicels are treated immediately with hot, hard pitch . In this way there is no opening through which air could penetrate that would initiate the fermentation process. Pliny describes the plucking of apples together with the branches, the ends of which were thrust into elder pitch and then buried. The pedicels of figs, however, were removed, after which they were sun-dried and mixed with condiments and then made into a paste by trampling . Ripe apples, pears, quinces, plums, cherries, and figs can be preserved in honey or, as far as quinces are concerned, in a mixture of honey and boiled wine. Whole bunches of grapes were carefully placed in vessels that were compartmentalized with pieces of wood so that the grapes could not touch each other or the vessel itself.

Sawdust or chaff was used for covering the bunches of grapes. The large fruits of the pomegranate and quince even facilitate the embedding in a thick layer of well-kneaded potter’s clay, which can be removed later on by plunging it in water so that the clay dissolves to release the perfectly preserved fruits . The drying of grapes is also combined with dipping them into a solution of alkali and olive oil as is, for example, described from Syria . The alkali is extracted from the ashes of salt wort , a desert plant gathered by uprooting it when it is still green. After burning the salt wort, the ashes are soaked in water and exposed for an extended period to the sun. Then the water is strained and some olive oil is added to it. According to Jabbur, the mixture should contain the right proportions of both ingredients. The use of a preserving mixture for grapes, consisting of a balanced combination of salt, oil, and cinder lye, is also described by Columella . The solution serves a dual purpose: it cleans the grapes and by softening and cracking the peel of the grapes, procona flower transport containers water more easily evaporates so that they dry and turn into raisins. There does not seem to be a general rule with respect to stoning fruits as part of the preservation procedure. According to Columella it was the practice of many people to cut up quinces and take out the seeds, because it was thought that the seeds were harmful. But very often, whole fruits were dried or pickled. This may be partly due to the difficulty of removing the stones from the flesh.The storage life of products that reached Berenike, either commodities, provisions for ships, or food products meant for their inhabitants, must have being given special attention as most were imported over long distances and were exposed to high temperatures. Markets that could offer perishables such as fruits and vegetables were not present, but some of these products could be grown in kitchen gardens. At Berenike itself, preservation conditions can be considered modest. The temperatures that allow microorganisms to grow are present during most part of the year. The aridity and the salty air, on the other hand, act as severe limiting factors for microbiological activity. This can be deduced from the present-day conservation conditions of archaeobotanical food remains. Much of the desiccated plant material, also erroneously mentioned as mummified, is still in an excellent condition, including pulses that tend to disappear in moister environments. But the atmospheric humidity, resulting from the presence of the Red Sea, is responsible for the morning dew during the winter and early spring and might have been problematic for optimizing storage facilities. This is especially true for dried food as it easily absorbs moisture.The transport of grain to Berenike would not have been problematic. Wheat and barley could have been obtained from the Nile Valley, a short trip as such. Rice and Job’s tears were transported over large distances as they were obtained from Indian harbors. Rice is well known for its good preservation conditions. Contrary to wheat, it is not susceptible to insect damage, can be kept for several years, and will even improve in taste . Storage of grain for a long period certainly requires special conditions, but the turnover at Berenike would have been relatively quick. Pulses consumed or transshipped in Berenike would have been more problematic. A valuable feature of domestic pulses is that pods do not open quickly, which means that dispersal is prevented. Nevertheless, seed loss is still experienced during harvesting, and this can be limited by harvesting pods when they are still not completely ripe. A consequence of this is that the seeds are not completely dry, a condition not optimal for storage, as is mentioned by Theophrastus . But special treatments of individual fruits or their individual characteristics could perhaps cope with this early harvesting. Cato , for example, describes a method for treating lentils. First, the lentils have to be soaked in silphium vinegar. Next they are exposed to the sun, rubbed with oil, and finally dried. Some members of the pea family, including pea , contain phytoalexines in their seeds, which have an antimicrobial activity . Other members of the pea family, namely, Abrus, twisted acacia , Nile acacia , carob , tamarind , and senna , have hard seeds or well-dried fruits that may only suffer from insect damage. For storing oil containing seeds, such as fl ax and safflower , it is important that the seeds remain intact during harvesting. Otherwise the oil will be liberated, causing rancidity in storage . Vegetables grown for their leaves are vulnerable in an arid climate. Garlic, which was available on a regular scale, could easily be transported in a dried condition. Eventually, brine and vinegar could be added to the sun-dried garlic, as is mentioned by Columella . Spices and condiments can be kept as long as they contain flavorings. These flavorings not only improve the taste of the food, but also protect the food against vermin.

Classical writers use the word myrobalan only in connection with oil-producing plants, such as sugar date and bentree . The use of myrobalan in connection with the cherry plum is of more recent date. It was first applied by the botanist Carolus Clusius . As is expressed in the epithet of one of the synonyms , the fruits of the cherry plum bear resemblance in both size and color, as far as the red-colored specimens are concerned, to those of the cherries and the mirabelle . Today, this name is especially used for cherry plums used as stocks for grafting plums, apricots , and peach . That the Romans did cultivate the cherry plum could be evidenced, however, from archaeobotanical records. So far, three Roman sites have revealed the diagnostic endocarps: Bad Homburg, Ellingen, and Köngen, all located in southern Germany . Other records concern much earlier periods and include charred endocarp fragments from the Middle Palaeolithic Douara Cave in Syria, identified as wild cherry plum by means of chemical analysis and Neolithic remains from Russia, Moldavia, and Slovakia. More recent records are unearthed from medieval contexts such as those from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, and Germany . Because the fruits are not adapted to the arid conditions of Egypt, their presence in Berenike certainly points to import from the Mediterranean area or beyond.The taxonomy as well as the domestication of plums are still in discussion owing to their vegetative reproduction and hybridization. The vegetative reproduction of plums has a long tradition in its domestication history. Domestic plum varieties can be propagated from root suckers and by grafting, 25 liter pot plastic in which grafts of the desired species are unifi ed with the stock of a host species called scion. This kind of reproduction, in addition to cross-pollination and hybridization, has resulted in a highly varied polyploid complex of plum taxa.

The variability of the plum species is also expressed in their endocarps and, therefore, hampers the identification of these mostly well-preserved fragments from archaeological contexts. Woldring suggests that the black fruited damson plum originates directly from sloe . The damson plum itself is considered to be the main progenitor of the domestic plum . Another possible domestication history is proposed by KörberGrohne , who is of the opinion that the hexaploid domestic plum is a hybrid of the tetraploid sloe and the diploid cherry plum . A third possibility is discussed by Zohary and Hopf , who state that the domesticated plum evolved directly from the variable cherry plum and consider both taxa therefore as a single species .Five endocarps have been unearthed in Berenike that belong to Prunus domestica, three of them bearing resemblance to the domestic plum ; the other two show more similarity to modern endocarps of the damson plum . The endocarps partly originate from trenches 33 and 48, which also revealed the cherry plum, suggesting that these two fruits belonged to the same assemblage of food supply. In point of fact, the endocarps of P. domestica in Berenike are the first evidence of its use as food in Egypt. The two other Egyptian records of plum concern its wood, originating from Thebes , and its leaves made into a garland, which was found in a Greco-Roman grave in Antinoë . This scanty Egyptian record contrasts with the sizeable archaeobotanical record of P. domestica from Europe in particular. Certain groups of plums of the subspecies domestica and insititia are easily dried and become prunes, which can be easily stored and transported. The import of plums as prunes from the Mediterranean area, where plums were cultivated in orchards, would have been easy and would have been a nourishing food supply in Berenike. That only a small number of fruit remains has been found might indicate that the supply was limited. But it is also possible that most of the delivered prunes had been already destoned, which is quite easily done with fruits of P. domestica.

If so, endocarps of plums would only occasionally have ended up in the dump areas of Berenike.The peach is a latecomer in the tradition of horticulture. Originating from the mountainous areas of Tibet and western China, it reached Greece through Persia about 300 BC. Dilphilus of Siphnos, who lived from 340–289 BC, is the first Greek author who undeniably mentions this tree . The only archaeobotanical record from Greece originates from Samos and is dated to the seventh century AD . The Romans did not cultivate the peach until the first century AD . Most varieties of peach require 500 to 1,000 hours of cold temperatures below 7°C to bloom naturally in the spring. So its distribution is restricted to temperate regions of the world with cold, but not severe, winters . The climatic conditions in most parts of Egypt are, therefore, not favorable for the cultivation of peaches. In present-day Egypt, peach cultivation is mainly confined to the Bahriya Oasis and the northern Sinai . The oldest Egyptian record of the peach originates from Ptolemaic el-Hibeh in the Nile Valley, some 60 km south of the Fayum . Other finds are dated to the Roman and early Byzantine periods and are recorded from the Fayum , the Dakhla Oasis , the Nile Valley , and the Red Sea coastal area . The concentration of finds in the Fayum supports the claim that peach was one of the new crops introduced to the Fayum . The find of just one single part of the inner fruit wall of a peach in Berenike may reflect that this luxury fruit was probably only sporadically available, although it may not be excluded that destoned peaches also were brought to Berenike. Peaches may have originated from Egyptian plantations or from a more remote distant area to the north of Egypt. The recovery from a late context argues for the import of peaches produced in Egypt. According to Pliny , the journey from Koptos to Berenike took 12 days, and the same period was necessary to travel from Alexandria to Koptos . Thus, imported either from Egyptian orchards or from the Mediterranean area, the long distance transport and storage of the perishable peaches would only have been feasible if the peaches were conserved as syrup or as pickles.

Although seeds of peaches contain a considerable amount of oil, it is unlikely that they were transported to Berenike especially for this nutriment only. If this was the case, one would expect to find only some spoiled seeds and not remnants of the relatively large fruit stones.The wild forms of the pomegranate are abundantly present in two areas: to the east in the south Caspian belt and northeastern Turkey and more to the west in the Balkan area, including Albania and Montenegro . Wood suggests that the tree might be native to Arabia as the only other member of the family, namely, P. protopunica Balf. f., is endemic in Socotra. Archaeobotanical evidence, however, points to the eastern Mediterranean area as the core area of its domestication. Textual records and wall paintings in Egyptian tombs that make reference of horticultural practices of the pomegranate are dated to the New Kingdom , whereas the first archaeobotanical records are dated to the preceding Second Intermediate Period . There is some doubt about the dating of small fruits of the pomegranate recorded from the Twelfth Dynasty at Dra Abu el-Naga, and it is suggested that they probably belong to the Eighteenth Dynasty . In addition to the archaeobotanical finds, 25 litre plant pot which include whole fruits, rinds, seeds, leaves, and flower , ceramic imitations and dinnerware designs based on the whole fruit, also express the appreciation of the highly prized tree. The main production area of pomegranates in present-day Egypt is the lagoon of Marash Matruh in the western Mediterranean coastal strip, about 170 km west of El-Alamein . Fruits of wild specimens are sour and relatively small; those of domesticated ones are large and more appetizing. The fleshy fruit consists of 8–12 carpels, each containing many seeds. The fruit is often called a “berry,” but this is incorrect because the juicy, edible part is in fact the seed coat. Pliny distinguishes five different tastes: sweet, sour, mixed, acid, and vinous. The fruits can be eaten fresh, and the somewhat bitter seeds are not swallowed, or their juice can be drunk as grenadine or used for fermentation into shedeh or rhoites wine .

The root and bark are used for expelling tapeworm, and the rind is used as an astringent for the treatment of, for example, diarrhea and bleeding . Several parts of the plant are also used for tanning and dyeing. According to Pliny , the rinds of unripe fruits are especially used for tanning leather for clothing. This kind of use is recorded from North Africa, including Tunis and Morocco, and from the Near East . The rind provides a yellow dye, which can be used as ink and for dyeing textiles. Whole, desiccated fruits or particles of the leathery rind are still available in Near Eastern shops with a good assortment of herbal products. In addition, the fruit was also considered as a symbol of fertility, based on the large number of seeds in a single fruit. This number has been estimated by Kucˇan at 250 to 400 seeds per fruit. The specimens from Berenike would have been imported from the Nile Valley. Fully ripe fruits keep well and can be transported over considerable distances if bruising is prevented.Several trenches from Berenike yielded fruits that could be identified to either Italian senna , with a characteristic flap like crested vein on both sides of the fruit, or to Alexandrian senna and S. holosericea, whose fruits lack this pronounced vein. Although their leaves easily distinguish S. alexandrina and S. holosericea, an identification on the basis of their fruits is not possible. For that reason, the sub-fossil fruits from Berenike lacking the crested veins have been attributed to both these species. The fruits of coffee senna do not come into consideration, as they are small and narrow. The above-mentioned species were formerly classified within the genus Cassia and may not be confused with the cassia frequently mentioned by classical writers with respect to the bark of certain cinnamon species, which also bear the name “cassia” in some of their vernacular names, such as cassia , Indian cassia , and Padang cassia . Both S. alexandrina and S. holosericea are desert plants and are recorded from the Eastern Desert, including the Red Sea coastal strip. Only Italian senna grows in the near vicinity of Berenike, whereas S. holosericea has been found in the late Roman settlement Qariya Mustafa ’Amr Gama in Wadi Umm Athl, some 40 km south of Berenike. The fruits of these species must have been deliberately collected as it seems unlikely that they once grow at Berenike’s site proper or that their fruits were blown into the site from populations growing in the nearby wadis. Only Alexandrian senna has some economic value. It provides tannin, and both dried leaves and fruits are used as a purgative and are still sold by herbalists in the Near East. Other archaeobotanical evidence from Egypt of Cassia and Senna concern threaded seeds of Cassia cf. absus L. found in Gebelein and charcoal of S. alexandrina found at Nabta Playa, dated to the late Palaeolithic. The glossy, rhomboid seeds of C. absus are still available at bazaars in the Near East, including Egypt.Wild species of sesame occur in India and Africa. Referring to the large number of wild species in Africa, it has been frequently suggested that the cultivation of sesame started in the African continent . Inter specific hybridization and chemical studies now indicate that sesame was first brought into cultivation in India, in which Sesamum orientale var. malabaricum Nar. is proposed as the crop progenitor . Bedigian and Harlan and Bedigian summerized the archaebotanical, philological and historical evidence. From India, the crop would have been introduced both eastward to China and westward to the Near East and the Mediterranean region. Archaeobotanical remains are recorded from India, Pakistan, China, the Near East, Turkey, Yemen, and Egypt. So far, the oldest find of sesame is recorded from Harappa in Pakistan, which is dated to 3500–3050 BC. Sesame is cultivated for its edible, lightly aromatic seeds and its odorless oil.

The seeds from Berenike and Shenshef are small in size. Because they were retrieved in small numbers from trash deposits, their identification to the level of subspecies is, however, not possible. Although they may belong to the microsperma group, it is also possible that we are dealing with the small specimens of macrosperma group that passed through the sieves during cleaning of the seeds prior to cooking.In many samples, from both Berenike and Shenshef, large quantities of bulb-coat leaves were found of a yet-unidentified plant species. These large quantities suggest that it was a valued food plant and that they must have been available on a regular scale. So far, only one intact specimen has been found. The size of the bulbs is relatively small, not exceeding 1 cm in length. The bulbs either belong to species that have increase bulbs , produced by the subterranean bulb, or to species, which produce bulbils in the inflorescence instead of the flowers. They could also belong to species that produce only small bulbs. It is plausible that we are dealing with a species of the genus Allium. Some species within this genus, such as the great-head garlic , can produce numerous bulbils, which is true for the Egyptian specimens in particular . The morphology and the anatomy of the bulbils from this onion species do not match, however, with the sub-fossil specimens.Like lentil, fl ax also belongs to the first group of crops that were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. Flax holds a special position because it is not only grown as a food crop, but it is also exploited for its fibers. Today, fl ax is grown either for its seeds or for its fibers. Seed-yielding plants usually have short,10 plastic plant pots branched stems and produce large seeds, whereas fiber fl ax has taller, unbranched stems and produces smaller seeds .

The seeds are nutritious and contain 30 to 48 percent oil and 20 to 30 percent protein. Whole seeds can be used for garnishing loaves . Seeds can also be used as a source of vegetable oil and for making fl our. Linseed oil is obtained by cold pressing and can be used as cooking oil. The ancient Egyptians also used linseed oil for embalming bodies. Pounded linseed can be mixed with, for example, pulses and cereals. Pliny describes the making of barley porridge in which ground barley is mixed with pounded roasted coriander , salt, and linseed. In present-day Ethiopia, fl ax seeds are only used for making a stew called wot, which is a combination of pounded roasted linseed and pulses . Additionally, linseed was also used for all kinds of medical purposes. Pliny , for example, states that linseed together with ammi taken in wine is good for wounds caused by scorpions, creatures that have been frequently found during the excavations at Berenike. Today, linseed is still sold in spice markets for the treatment of abscesses and coughs . The fibers are extracted from the stem by a special procedure, which includes the bacterial breakdown of the softer tissue in stagnant water during a period of about 8 to 10 days. This is known as retting, a process in which the cellulose fibers become separated from each other. Flax fibers are the source of linen, which was used, among other things, for making dresses and sails. According to Pliny , sieves and meal sifters were made from fl ax fibers in Spain, whereas those in ancient Egypt were made from papyrus and rush . The use of flax as a source of fibers cannot be reconciled with the presence of fl ax seeds and a fruit fragment at Berenike and Shenshef. To produce fibers, much fresh water is needed for retting the stems, an essential step in the production process. This is not a problem in the Nile Valley, but is out of the question in desert settlements. The most likely explanation for its presence at Berenike and Shenshef is that the fl ax seeds were used in cooking, and possibly for oil extraction, and that they were traded.

The latter option is sustained by Pliny , who states that the disadvantage of growing fl ax, as it damages the land, is compensated in Egypt by the fact that it is used there in exchange for import items from Arabia and India. It is not clear from Pliny’s description whether fibers or seeds are meant. The Periplus Maris Erythraei makes no reference to the trade of fl ax. Judging by the water requirements on which fl ax cultivation relies, the Arabian Peninsula seems to be the most likely area to which it was exported. In trench BE96-14, a so-called twin-seed was found. Such double seeds stick together ventrally and originate from the same carpel. Twin-seeds are described from several samples collected in Ethiopia, including a sample from the Axum market . In most of these samples, twins-seeds were only sparsely present. A few samples from Haik , however, consisted predominantly of such twin-seeds. Twin-seeds of these samples were sown in an experimental field plot at Wageningen University , and those from Haik produced invariably plants with twin-seeds, indicating that this phenomenon is genetically determined.White lupin originates from the Mediterranean area. Its wild progenitor, now classified as Lupinus albus ssp. graecus Franco Silva, is native to the Aegean region . Apart from a single record from Pompeii, all other finds are recorded from Egypt. The first introduction into Egypt is, however, somewhat disputable. With the exception of a find in Dra Abu el-Naga from the Twenty second Dynasty , all other records are dated to the Roman period or later . White lupin is still a popular legume in Egypt. Almost all legumes are capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen in their roots in association with bacteria of the genus Rhizobium. A precondition is, however, that the particular rhizobial strain is present in the soil. Owing to this capability of fixing nitrogen, legumes are considered natural fertilizers and can grow in poor soils. The ancient Greeks were already familiar with this phenomenon, and it has been explicitly mentioned for white lupin, among some other legumes, by Cato .

Seeds of white lupin have a relatively high oil content of 11 to 18 percent and also a high protein content of up to 45 percent . Up until the 1920s, when a sweet alkaloid-free type became available, the steeping or boiling of white lupin seeds was necessary before consumption. According to Dalby , this pulse was not considered a high standard food in the Greek diet. White lupin can be fed to animals, but the presence of the bitter alkaloid may cause the disease lupinosis in sheep and horses, especially when these animals consume large concentrations. Seeds of the white lupin are also recommended by Pliny for the treatment of stomach disorders. Even at present-day markets in Egypt, white lupins are sold for medical purposes, such as skin inflammations, acne, diabetes, and liver complaints . The white lupin has been regularly found at Berenike and Shenshef. There is a marked contrast between whole seeds, which are perfectly preserved but are only seldom found, and damaged seeds, from which a reasonable number of seed-coat fragments are preserved. This difference in frequency can be explained by the way the seeds are eaten. After having been soaked in water,plastic pots large the seeds are cooked and eaten as a snack in which the soft content is sucked out and the leathery seed coats are discarded. Possibly, damaged seeds are less resistant to decay. Because of the unfavorable preservation of the broken seeds, it is possible that the white lupin is underrepresented in the archaeobotanical record. The white lupin was probably imported from the Nile Valley.The primary center of origin of the apple is located in parts of temperate Asia, its real center of origin however is obscured by the many existing varieties of both wild and cultivated apples. Even today, hybridization between wild and cultivated apples still occurs. The apple tree is adapted to cooler temperate climates as a chilling phase is necessary to break bud dormancy so that branches can produce their flowers . In present Egypt, apples are cultivated in the Marsah Matruh, located in the western Mediterranean coastal zone and are among the fruit crops in Egypt whose productivity is increasing . Apples can be propagated by seeds, as is the case with wild apples, or by vegetative reproduction attained by grafting or budding, which is common practice with cultivated races. The advantage of vegetative reproduction is twofold: the life cycle of new trees is shortened, and established features are no longer affected by recombination. The technique of vegetative propagation was already known in classical times. Theophrastus , for example, points out that apples, among some other fruit trees, can be best propagated by root suckers, whereas those raised from seeds will only produce inferior fruits. The presence of some pips at Berenike demonstrates the appreciation of this fruit, which most probably must have been imported from the Mediterranean area.

The only other archaeobotanical record of apple, mentioned as M. sylvestris Mill, is from Greek-Roman Douch in the Kharga Oasis , where leafy branches, a core fragment, and a pip were found .Persea is a member of the Sapotaceae, a plant family that has a pantropical distribution and is not represented in Egypt today. Persea is a tall tree adapted to arid conditions and is especially found on rocky slopes. It is native to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and adjacent parts of Somalia, but is also widely cultivated outside this area including Egypt . The oval greenish berries of the persea tree are about 3 to 4 cm long, have a sweet taste, and contain large inedible seeds. Theophrastus gives a description of the persea tree which makes sense in most of its details , including that it is fruit bearing in Egypt but has only flowers in Rhodes , which has a Mediterranean climate. According to Theophrastus, the persea tree is abundant in Thebes . His statement that the persea, together with the sycamore fig , the acacia, the sugar date , and some others trees are peculiar to Egypt , is certainly not true. The impressive archaeobotanical record of persea is restricted to Egypt. The first records date back to the Third Dynasty and comprise seeds and leaves made into garlands, in particular. It is noticed by Hepper that the folded leaves indicate that the tree once grew in Egypt as such folding is only possible when the leathery leaves are still fresh. Whole fruits were found in Tutankhamen’s tomb . Until recently, some trees planted by Schweinfurth were still present in the garden of the Agricultural Museum in Cairo , and currently its presence in the garden of the Egyptian museum could be demonstrated by Germer . The persea fruits could have been obtained from the Nile Valley or from Adulis or Avalitês , Muza on the coast of Yemen, or the far-side ports along the Somalian coast.The bentree belongs to the Moringaceae, a plant family related to the legume family . This tree is found in Israel northward up to the Jordan Valley, in tropical northeast Africa, and in parts of the Arabian Peninsula . In Egypt, the bentree grows in upstream wadis of the Red Sea mountains and in the mountains of the Sinai. In these areas, the bentree is restricted to the foothills of mountains higher than 1,300 m, especially if they are located more inland. Although the xerophytic trees have a low water requirement, they are only assured of sufficient supply of atmospheric water if they grow in the vicinity of such high mountains. The trees are quite common between Hurghada and Quseir and are also recorded from the Gebel Nugrus, about 130 km northwest of Berenike. South of Berenike, they are recorded from the Gebel Elba . The tree produces pendulous fruits up to 30 cm long, which contain a row of triangular seeds. The benseeds are highly valued for their oil. Ben oil is sweet, transparent, and odorless. It is the roots that have the same odor of horseradish and are sometimes eaten as a substitute for this plant.

The ophrastus states that chickpeas differ in size, shape, color, and taste. He distinguishes a red, a black, and a white type, the last one being the most appetizing. This distinction corresponds quite well with the cultivars grown today. On the other hand, Theophrastus erroneously states that the chickpea does not occur in India, while the Indian archaeobotanical record of this food legume dates back to the third millennium BC . A substantial record of archaeobotanical finds is also available for the Middle East and the Mediterranean, but not for Ethiopia and Eritrea, where archaeobotanical research in Axum has only recently been started. Literary sources make mention of the cultivation in Ethiopia as early as AD 1520. Therefore, the origin of the chickpea in Ethiopia is still rather obscure. According to Van derMaesen , the chickpeas of Egypt and Ethiopia differ from each other, making it unlikely that this crop was traded between both countries. This would imply that the Egyptian chickpea was introduced directly from the Near East, whereas the transoceanic trade between India and East Africa might have been responsible for its introduction into Ethiopia and Eritrea. The chickpea is represented in Berenike by only 26 seeds. This number is in marked contrast with that of two other pulses, namely lentils and white lupin, which have been found plentifully in many samples. Wastage of the relatively small lentils is obvious because seed samples are contaminated with weed seeds and small stones, and cleaning such contaminated lentils automatically means some smaller specimens will end up in the soil. The presence of the large seeds of the white lupin can be explained by the manner of consumption. Eaten as a snack, the content of the seeds is sucked out,greenhouse tables whereas the empty seed coat is discarded. In contrast, the large chickpea seeds can be sieved effectively, resulting in almost no wastage.

The chickpea was probably imported from the Nile Valley.The colocynth is a common desert plant that belongs to the white bryony family , which includes watermelons, gourds, and squashes. The colocynth has slender, procumbent stems with small yellow flowers that produce fruits with a diameter of 5.5 to 10.4 cm . Although tendrils are present, plants have mostly a prostrate habitus because of the lack of suitable host plants. Only occasionally plants may be seen trailing over other plants. Schweinfurth even describes many specimens hanging down from the slope of Wadi Mursseefa, south of Quseir. Unripe fruits are green and juicy and quite heavy. During the ripening process, the fruits become yellow and dry out completely, by which process the seeds get released from the inner fruit layers. The fruits are now very light and can easily be dispersed by the wind. As soon as the fragile fruit coat becomes damaged, the seeds are scattered into the sand. Despite its close taxonomic relationship to the watermelon, both fruits and seeds of the colocynth are not fit to eat due to their extreme bitter taste caused by the glucoside colocinthine. According to the Ababda nomads, only donkey and gazelle eat the fruits when they are still juicy and when more preferable herbs are no longer present in sufficient amounts. Osborne states that they are also eaten by Barbary sheep, rodents, and, after being boiled or roasted, by Tibbu people. Personal observations confirm that juicy fruits are eaten by donkeys, but not by sheep and goats. It was also observed that holes were pecked in both unripe and ripe fruits, probably by carrion crows. The presence of colocynth depends on the rainfall during the winter period. When there has been sufficient rainfall, some hundreds of full-grown fruits can be collected in the nearby wadi branches.

After a dry winter, however, the number of plants is clearly reduced, and also the fruit diameter is relatively small. The colocynth still occurs in Wadi Shenshef and may have entered the trash deposits from this settlement by natural dispersal agents. Nevertheless, the occurrence of colocynth seeds in reasonable concentrations in most samples from Shenshef seems to exceed its presence as part of the seed bank and consequently indicates deliberate collecting. The rare occurrence of the colocynth in the immediate surroundings of this settlement can be explained by the presence of wild donkeys and gazelles, the former frequently seen passing the settlement area on special paths and the latter detected by the many hoof prints in the sand. The colocynth is also present in the many branches of Wadi Mandit in the coastal plain around Berenike, so the collecting of these fruits did not require a great deal of effort. It is possible that the residents of Berenike collected unripe, juicy fruits of the colocynth as donkey food. In addition to camels, these animals were used for transport in Berenike . Such unripe fruits can be stored for at least a couple of months without drying out. Ababda nomads also use the fruits for medical purposes, and in wadis where this species is abundant, carloads are collected and brought to Aswân to sell at the markets. Fruits that are still juicy are fastened to one’s heel to relieve the pain caused by rheumatism. The production of an ointment for treating camel scabies is mentioned in particular in relation to the Ababda nomads. This ointment is made by filling a pot with colocynth seeds and covering the pot’s mouth with some palm leaves. Then the pot is put upside down on a dish and covered with charcoal. During this process, black oil, resembling motor oil, drips out of the seeds onto the dish. After shaving the camel’s skin and removing the scab, the black ointment is then rubbed onto the wound of the camel. During his visits to the Gebel Elba area, Drar saw piles of colocynth fruits and a number of small ovens between Wadi Ibib and Karam Elba especially erected for extracting this tar, which they call “diwân.” Also Osborne often saw piles of charred seeds and remnants of fruits in wadis of the Eastern Desert together with an oven of stones and clay.

According to Girgis, cited in Zahran and Willis , this tar was also used for tanning skins meant for making water bags. Bottles with such tar are still sold at local markets, such as those of Shelateen. In the Sinai, the bedouins still use colocynth seeds to cure human constipation . Reasonable quantities of colocynth fruits are still collected in the Egyptian deserts and put up for sale in markets where they are sold for 1 Egyptian pound apiece. Both the reddish, sweet-tasting fruit pulp and the large seeds are edible. The fruit pulp has a low content of vitamins and minerals; the seeds are nutritious and contain a relatively high percentage of protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Today, in Arabic countries, several seeds are used as a snack, including seeds of watermelon, summer squash , and large seeded varieties of the sunflower , the two last ones being New World species. A special inedible variety of watermelon with small fruits is even exclusively cultivated for its seeds, especially in Nubia, from where it is imported to Egypt . The seeds are crushed between the teeth, the seed content is eaten, and the hard seed coats are discarded. In Egypt this is practiced by both Egyptians and nomads. About half of the sub-fossil seeds from Berenike and Shenshef are still whole and suggest that seeds were not eaten. The seed fragments found can be explained because old seeds easily disintegrate, especially along the lengthwise groove. As watermelons are well adapted to hot and dry climates,flood tray they might have been locally cultivated in kitchen gardens near Berenike and Shenshef. Because the fruits have a hard rind, they can easily be transported and might also have been imported from the Nile Valley. Today, they are, for example, available from the market in Shelateen. The storage life is maximized by leaving the long peduncle on the fruit . Unfortunately, no remains of peduncles or rinds have been found so far. Modern watermelons produce fruits up to 10 kg in weight. Such large-sized fruits can only be successfully grown if the stems creep along the ground. The tendrils produced in leaf axils indicate that we are dealing with a trailing plant so that in the past the fruits must have been much smaller. Watermelon is a native of tropical and subtropical Africa and has been cultivated in Egypt since predynastic times.Cocculus pendulus is a plant that grows in cliff-side habitats or in areas where other trees are present. In the latter case it becomes a liana. As the seed germinates in the soil, it produces a creeping stem that ascends when under a tree, possibly induced by the reduction of light intensity. The lower part of the stem, which is mostly fl at to some extent, may reach a diameter up to 25 cm, whereas the interweaving branches are much smaller. The plant is recorded from the Aswân Nile islands, all deserts, including the east section of Wadi Allaqi in the Nubian Desert, the Sinai, and the Gebel Elba area . The present vegetation around Berenike and Shenshef does not suggest that C. pendulus once grew in the vicinity of either of these places. The presence of small amounts of seeds in several trenches of both sites indicates that the edible fruits must have been imported regularly. Judging by the frequency of C. pendulus in the Gebel Elba, this area seems to be the most plausible place of origin. The fruits have a diameter of 5 mm. The stony endocarps are relatively large, so that only a small part of the bitter tasting fruit is edible. Arabs use the fruits for making an alcoholic beverage called Chamr el Madjnûne . Fruits are also used for medicinal purposes.

Another member of this plant family, namely, Anamirta cocculus Wright & Arn., is one of the species that according to Warmington might have been traded by the Romans. The dried, highly poisonous fruits of this plant cannot be confused with those of C. pendulus, but are still sold under the old name of C. indicus Wright & Arn. at Middle East markets, including the Harraz Drug Store in Cairo . During a visit to the Gebel Elba area in February/ March 1999, it was seen that most fruits fall when they are still green. Once the fruits are on the soil, they lose moisture and are difficult to collect because they are scattered in low densities and tend to sink in the loose sand when they are touched. Collecting fruits still attached to branches is also difficult, especially when the liana grows in large, spiny acacias. An effective way of harvesting would be pulling down the fruits with long sticks and collecting the fruits on mats or cloths. The archaeobotanical record of this species is scanty. The oldest record is from the Eastpans site A95/1-1 in the southwestern part of the Western Desert where some 10 charred seeds were found in a Middle Neolithic layer . Schiemann reported the presence of a single fruit of C. hirsutus Diel among samples of Grewia, taken from several baskets of Tutankhamen’s tomb. According to Germer , more fruits are present in the samples stored in the Dokki Agricultural Museum in Cairo. Recently, the author had the opportunity to check this sample and it turned out that the fruits of Grewia were contaminated with a fruit of juniper , a fruit of nabq , and two spikelets of grasses. Also, the other part of the Grewia sample from Tutankhamen’s tomb kept in Kew does not contain any seed of Cocculus, so the identification by Schiemann could not be confirmed . Another reason for doubting its identification is that C. hirsutus is not native to Egypt but must have been imported from either Saudi Arabia, Yemen, or tropical Africa. Moreover, there is no reference to specific uses of the small fruits. The coconut is valued for both the fruit and the seed. The fruit consists of three layers: the exocarp, the mesocarp, and the endocarp. The lignified, relatively thin endocarp is tightly connected with the thin seed coat. Initially, inside the seed coat there is a liquid endosperm, which, as the fruit ripens, gets reduced and forms a white edible layer against the seed coat.

Ababda nomads still harvest suitable branches from these plants . Branches of the toothbrush plant are cut into pieces about 15 cm long and made into a brush at one end. Salvadora persica often remain bushy as a result of this exploitation. Some antispasmodic properties of this plant have been proven, for which reason extracts are also recom mended for certain diseases . In 1988, a commercial toothpaste containing Salvadora was even put on the market in Saudi Arabia . Branches of the plant are still offered for sale in markets in the Middle East. Another plant that is still used for oral hygiene in this area, and also still available in markets, is toothpick ammi . Complete umbels are collected from this plant. The rays thicken after flowering and can be used as toothpicks. In Egypt, this plant has been recorded from the Nile Valley and the Mediterranean region but has become an endangered species in this country by now. Potential dye plants that grow in the immediate surroundings of Berenike are Arnebia hispidissima, Chrozophora tinctoria, and Indigofera articulata. The thickened root of A. hispidissima is a source of yellow dye. Crushed leaves of C. tinctoria can be used to give the skin a purple tone. Fermented leaves of indigo species can be used as a source of blue dye. When synthetic indigo became available in 1897, the production of natural indigo dropped dramatically . According to Drar , by the beginning of the twentieth century, the extensive cultivation of indigo was confined to the Nile Valley and the Dakhla oasis. Local Ababda nomads do not use either of these plants today. Polycarpaea repens and Citrullus colocynthis are used for treating wounds,blueberry container size in particular those of camels. Leaves from P. repens are either crushed on the skin or first made into ash .

A more-detailed description of the processing of tar from the seeds of C. colocynthis follows in the “Local Food Production” section. Echium rauwolfi i is widely valued in Yemen for its medical properties, where it is used as a diuretic, tranquilizer, and aphrodisiac .For the interpretation of the sub-fossil record of cultivated plants from Berenike and Shenshef, it is important to explore the present-day practices of local food production in the Eastern Desert. Water availability and labor can be considered as the main limiting factors. Nevertheless, it may be assumed that the inhabitants of Berenike and Shenshef may also have practiced the small-scale examples that can be encountered today. Although the part of Egypt that is suitable for agricultural production is relatively small, being confined to the Nile Valley, the Nile Delta, and the oases in the Western Desert, it still is capable of producing very high yields. Before the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the Nile Valley and the Delta owed their fertility to the yearly flooding of the Nile. Because sufficient rainfall is only available in the Mediterranean coastal area, irrigation is necessary elsewhere. But even in far less suitable environments, such as the Eastern Desert, agricultural practices can be observed almost everywhere where people have settled. This is not only true for cities such as Quseir, but also for small villages of settled Ababdas and restaurants along desert roads. In order of importance, we can distinguish kitchen gardens, cultivated trees, and fields.Both permanent and semipermanent settlements in the Eastern Desert are characterized by the presence of small kitchen gardens. The cultivation of vegetables and herbs with a short life cycle enables their cultivation even in temporarily occupied settlements. In most instances the gardens are private domains and of limited size. Both the presence of the kitchen gardens and their size are mainly determined by the amount of water that is available. Kitchen gardens that were seen in the Eastern Desert have a size of about 4 to 20 m2 . A necessary condition for the cultivation of crop plants in these kitchen gardens is the availability of water and minerals. Due to their fixed location, manuring might be necessary if gardens are used intensively.

According to the sheikh of Arab Saleh, one of the few owners of a kitchen garden in this settlement, their gardens are not fertilized. He referred to the former situation in the Nile Valley , where only additional camel dung was used as a natural fertilizer. Applying this traditional and natural manure, vegetables were produced with a good taste. Nowadays artificial manure has to be brought onto the land as the Nile flooding is blocked. Much organic waste is present in the water used for irrigation and on the fields proper, which in their turn affects people’s health. Despite their relatively small size, kitchen gar dens produce quite a variety of crops. Although the productivity is limited, the yield may be self-supporting if the family is not too big. If water is available throughout the year, kitchen gardens can produce several yields a year. Kitchen plants are mostly grown in a protected area near the house, although occasionally it was also seen that plants such as karkadeih and basil were cultivated in a flower box. The gardens are surrounded by walls or fences to prevent the browsing of domestic animals such as sheep and goats, which are a serious threat to a good harvest. Fences are constructed from spiny branches, such as those from twisted acacia , wire netting, wood, or sheet iron. It is conceivable that in Roman times spiny branches were used especially for this purpose. When fenced off, kitchen gardens may be completely hidden from view. I once stayed for a couple of days at the accommodation of the Geological Survey in Shelateen and only discovered the small kitchen garden producing faba beans by accident after two days.In a temporary settlement of workmen from an asphalt company, some 30 km north of Berenike, a larger kitchen garden was observed, which w a s a c o m m u n a l property. In this case, the kitchen garden was unfenced because no domestic animals were present. Only a scarecrow was erected for protection . Most garden plants are characterized by their edibility. The following species have been recorded in kitchen gardens in the Eastern Desert: basil , sunflower , caper bush , possibly cumin , lavender , fennel , Johnson grass , faba bean , morning glories , karkadeih , cress , coriander , tomato , potato , onions , garden rocket , watermelon , cucumber , and courgette .

Hobbs also mentions Malta jute , snake melon , okra , chickpea , white lupin , lentil , and tobacco . The cultivation of tobacco is forbidden in Egypt today as it is related with the period in which Nasser was in power, during which close relations with the former Soviet Union were maintained. Vegetables and herbs are sown in early spring to profit from the winter rains and to avoid high temperatures during the growing season. But additional watering is always necessary. This might be done with a watering can or, more advanced, with the aid of small gutters that transect the garden and are regularly filled with water. Wastewater may be used for this purpose, but special water is also bought. That the presence of kitchen gardens is directly determined by the availability of water is clearly illustrated in Quseir, where kitchen gardens are in abundance and owners are assured of a steady supply of cheap water. This water originates from the Red Sea and is desalinated in a special factory. This amount of water is sufficient for a kitchen garden of approximately 12 to 15 m2 . In Arab Saleh, an Ababda village some 15 km northwest of Berenike, water has become a scarce item and has led to the reduction of kitchen gardens in this area. Contrary to Quseir,growing raspberries in container the water used for human consumption and for irrigation originates from the same source. A special type of irrigation is obtained by diverting flood waters to particular depressions, which are subsequently used for farming purposes. The practice of this kind of runoff or flood water farming, which is restricted to years with heavy winter rains, is observed for the Arab bedouins in the northern part of the Eastern Desert and the Sinai .Only a minority of these trees is indigenous to the Eastern Desert: twisted acacia, nabq, and date palm. Some others originate from the Nile Valley or are cultivated there from classical times onward: Nile acacia, fig, henna tree and castor-oil plant. All the others trees can be considered as exotic species. A good example is the Eucalyptus tree, which originates from Australia and has a widespread distribution today throughout the Mediterranean region, where it can be found near settlements and also in more natural environments. As most people like to cultivate exotic species in their gardens, the planting of foreign trees by desert dwellers may therefore not be surprising. The Eucalyptus tree in Arab Saleh, for example, was grown from a young sprout that originated from the Nile Valley. The large proportion of exotic trees in Cairo also illustrates people’s preference for non-indigenous plants . Such non-desert trees, however, need special attention and are restricted to settlements only. But desert trees that are cultivated near shelters may also need supplementary watering. Schweinfurth states that a small date-palm grove near Quseir was irrigated with brackish water obtained from Wadi Ambagi. The author witnessed in Marsa Alam, located between Quseir and Berenike, a full-grown Balanites aegyptiaca that was watered with wastewater via a gully. Trees that are adapted to desert conditions may survive when settlements become abandoned or may even escape from cultivation through seed dispersion. According to Schweinfurth such a palm grove is present in the Wadi Gimal estuary, 93 km north of Berenike, and consists of date palms and doam palms . Today, these palm trees are not cultivated anymore: the old leaves are still attached to the stem. Hobbs states that nabq trees in the Ma’aza territory are regarded by the nomads as “antiquities,” which were cultivated by the Romans. Once full-grown, trees may serve as shade plants. They also may be exploited for useful products, which is true for almost every species enumerated above. Dead branches can be used as firewood, and most of the cultivated trees are valued for their edible fruits. Others, such as the henna tree and the Nile acacia , produce other useful products. The powdered leaves of the henna tree can be used as a cosmetic dye and is applied to the hands and feet of women in a characteristic pattern. Fruits of the Nile acacia are used for tanning. Both the henna tree and the Nile acacia are present in gardens of Quseir, and it is likely that leaves and ripe pods are harvested for personal use or sold in markets. Even in Cairo’s spice markets, these products are offered for sale. The Ababdas from Arab Saleh do not cultivate these trees, despite their frequent use of henna and acacia fruits. Both products are obtained from the markets in Shelateen, approximately 90 km to the south.At several locations the author has witnessed that cereal cultivation in the Eastern Desert is possible. A fairly large wheat field next to an orchard has been seen in Wadi el-Matuli, along the former caravan track between Berenike and Koptos , some 17 km from the Nile Valley. A barley field of only 4 m2 was seen near a frontier station about 10 km north of Quseir . Both these fields were irrigated. An example of rain-fed farming was found about 1.5 km south of Arab Saleh, near Berenike, where sorghum was occasionally cultivated on a small scale. A necessary condition for sorghum cultivation in this area is sufficient rainfall during the winter period, with most rain falling in November. The field near Arab Saleh measures a couple of hectares and had been sown with sorghum in 1995 and in 1997 after heavy winter rains. Suitable locations for such rain-fed agriculture are shallow depressions in which rainwater is concentrated.

This is documented in the Periplus by several examples and concerns food items , textiles and clothing, lac dye , and slaves . After the downfall of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Arabs in Egypt in AD 640, Berenike lost its transfer function and was at the mercy of the destructive forces of the desert. Both sandstorms and supply of sand by the wadi branches north and south of Berenike buried the city in the course of time, leaving only a vague contour of the walls of the latest buildings and a variety of densely scattered trash. The lagoon south of Berenike has been filled by wadi fl ood sediments and wind borne sediments .Roman activity in the Eastern Desert lasted from 30 BC to AD 638 and is still reflected by many archaeological installations, including settlements, watering stations , forts, quarries, roads, graves, and cemeteries. This is also true for the environment of Berenike. To optimize a comparison of the sub-fossil plant remains of this harbor site with the present-day situation, it was decided to make an inventory of the present vegetation of the immediate surroundings of Berenike, the nearby watering station Kalalat, and the mountain settlements of Khesm Umm Kabu, Hitan Rayan, Shenshef, and Qariya Mustafa ‘Amr Gama . These sites will be briefl y described, starting with the northernmost site and ending with the most southerly one. Khesm Umm Kabu is located in the upstream part of Wadi Gimal . In this part of the wadi, the Romans exploited several beryl mines in the mountains. These mines are located at different branches of this wadi and are referred to as Mons Smaragdus. Surface finds indicate that the occupation period of the mining settlements lasted from the first to the fifth centuries AD . Contrary to the nearby mining settlements Sikait and Nugrus,plastic potting pots no obvious remnants of Roman buildings are present these days at Khesm Umm Kabu.

The only two ruins and an associated well are of recent date. Berenike is located on the seaward edge of the coastal plain between the branches of Wadi Mandit and Wadi Umm el-Mandit. The Ptolemaic buildings were founded on an elevated limestone outcrop that originally had a maximum elevation of well over 3 m above the current high tide . Ptolemaic as well as Roman buildings have been completely covered by wind-blown sand, which has accumulated during the course of time. With the exception of the remains of the temple of Serapis, located on the highest point of the town center, only the contours of the most elevated walls are visible on the surface . Photographs taken during an expedition in 1897 conducted by Raimondi clearly show that this temple has suffered much from its exposure during the twentieth century. Therefore, the Berenike project decided to rebury the temple. Although detailed maps are now available presenting the buildings visible on the surface and despite eight years of excavation, it is still difficult to make a reliable estimate of the total number of buildings. Demographic data, such as the size of the population in a particular period, are equally unclear. This is especially true for earlier habitation periods, as these have been built over or destroyed by subsequent activities in the town. An estimate for the last habitation phase, dated to the fifth to the early sixth centuries AD, is also difficult to make, since part of the topmost portion of the surface on the west side has been leveled by bulldozing in about 1973, when military installations were built in this area. Estimating the original size of the settlement is further complicated by the fact that it is likely that only a part of Berenike consisted of stone structures. Locally available fossilized coral was the most commonly used building material .

Temporary residence, using tents in a similar way as was practiced during the excavation seasons, could have been established perhaps west of the town center on a fl at area that covers about 7 ha. At its maximal extension, Berenike may have comprised an area of about 2 km². This area not only included living quarters, but there is also evidence of some industrial activity, including the production of metal, rope, and perhaps glass and beads . A conservative estimate of 500 persons is given by Wendrich , taking into consideration only the small buildings visible in the still-intact town center and supposing an occupation per house of an average of five persons. The location of the harbor, whether it was a real harbor or some convenient landing place, as described by Strabo , is not yet known for certain. Possibly its location shifted from north to south of the town in the course of time, as did the extension of the town center. Although some burials were found in the built-up area of Berenike, most bodies seem to have been buried outside the town. Scattered over the higher levels of the coastal plain, dozens of graves are still present. Here they are well protected against flooding, although this location could not have prevented plundering. In Wadi Kalalat, close to the mountains, a small fort and a large watering station are present at a distance of about 1 km from each other. The function of the small fort is still unclear. The watering station has a rectangular outside wall and a large, walled, circular depression on the inside. Measuring approximately 80 x 90 m, it is measured up to the largest forts of the Eastern Desert . The watering station is located on the floor of the most active part of Wadi Kalalat. At this latitude most of the water drains off underground to the Red Sea, but occasionally serious flooding may occur after heavy rainfall. Probably, the thick outside walls were built to protect the inner construction, in which the latter probably functioned as a well .

To ensure the indispensable supply of water throughout the year, Harrell suggests that a large diameter of the well should have been necessary because of the low groundwater-fl ow velocity. It is very likely that this watering station played an import role in the supply of fresh water to Berenike. Although the principal drainage course of Wadi Kalalat flows into the Red Sea just south of Berenike, the watering station is located 8.5 km southwest of the site. This western location was probably chosen to avoid the effect of saltwater penetration nearer to the sea. Partly, salt water penetrates through the soil and partly salt crystals are blown inland from dried-up land during low tide . Excavations have, so far, produced no evidence of the existence of a pipeline to transport water from Kalalat to Berenike. Because the watering station is located in the active part of the wadi, where a direct water pipeline between Kalalat and Berenike could easily be damaged by erosive fl oodwaters, it seems more likely that the water was carried to Berenike by animal transport . Hitan Rayan and Shenshef are located in Wadi al-Rayan and Wadi Shenshef, respectively, at a distance of 8.5 km in a straight line from each other. Obviously, both settlements are located west of an outcrop of the impermeable bedrock, in very shallow sand. As a result, the underground water fl ow is pushed up and slowly running fresh surface water is present . Probably because the drainage basin of Wadi Shenshef is larger than that of Wadi al-Rayan, the amount of surface water in the latter is more substantial and has never been seen dried up over the last six years, as has been the case in Wadi al-Rayan. The long-term character of surface water is supported by the presence of bulrush near Hitan Rayan and common reed and Cyperus laevigatus near Shenshef.The function of Hitan Rayan is enigmatic. Shenshef was, most likely, a satellite settlement of Berenike and was occupied during the fifth to early sixth centuries AD. The settlement area of Hitan Rayan, which is mainly concentrated on the terraces on the north side of the wadi, comprises remnants of 141 separate structures and 31 burial cairns,raspberry container growing partly concentrated in a cemetery on a terrace at the east side of the settlement and partly at isolated locations on the mountains. An analysis based on variables, such as the method of wall construction in relation to roofi ng; the number of enclosed spaces in one building, varying from one to three; and the position of components such as ovens and storage vessels to each other, suggest that the settlement was primarily used for living . Despite the abundance of quartz veins in the rocks around Hitan Rayan, there is, with the exception of one locality close to the ruins, no indication of gold mining as is evidenced more to the southwest . The Hitan Rayan settlement might have been a gold exploration camp. Unlike Hitan Rayan, there is an obvious plan to the settlement of Shenshef. There, also, the buildings are Figure 1.7. Surface water in Wadi Shenshef near a narrow gorge westward of the settlement . See Color Plates section, page 204. of a better quality, due to the drystone construction with laminar-formed stones.

The ruins of houses are present over a distance of about 800 meters and occur on both elevated terraces of the wadi that become only occasionally flooded . In total, 332 structures are mapped, representing four distinct phases of construction. A comparison with Murray’s plan of the site, reflecting the situation in the 1920s, shows that in the last decades several buildings have been destroyed . In addition to the houses, there is an enclosure, and many partly clustered graves are scattered over the area. Finally, a large hilltop fort on the east side of the settlement stretches over two adjacent hilltops from which the Red Sea can be seen. Ceramic finds date this fort to the first century AD, possibly predating the settlement. Shenshef is not located along a major roadway or are quarries or mines present in the surroundings of Shenshef, which might have explained its former function. The quarries north and south of Shenshef follow aplite dikes and were only used for the production of local building material. It is also from this construction phase that some of the houses still have walls about 2.5 to 3 m high standing, with complete doorways, windows, and internal niches. The last Roman installation to be mentioned here is Qariya Mustafa ‘Amr Gama, located in Wadi Umm Athl . S. Sidebotham named the site in honor of the Ababda, who showed them the site, whereas the wadi itself bears the vernacular name of the leafless tamarix , which grows in this Figure 1.8. Shenshef with remains of buildings along both sides of the wadi, looking northwest . See Color Plates section, page 204. wadi at the site proper. This tree, which is also present near the former settlement of Khesm Umm Kabu, is sensitive to water shortage and its presence may be indicative of water accumulation or crack seepage. The site dates to the late fifth century, possibly early sixth century, and is, thus, contemporary with Hitan Rayan and Shenshef. A nearby shady rock pool contained a reasonable amount of water during a visit in early February 1998.Rainfall in the Eastern Desert is scanty, unpredictable, and concentrated in the winter period. Short, heavy showers may produce huge quantities of water, but these cloudbursts are quite rare and localized. After such heavy rains, silty, fl at depressions are filled for weeks or even months with water and can be used for cultivating plants that are adapted to this kind of water supply, such as sorghum . Especially in the Red Sea coastal strip, where a well-developed seed bank is present owing to the atmospheric humidity, which is responsible for a more regular water supply, such erratic cloudbursts will result in a considerable increase in the vegetation cover . In his description of the Eastern Desert, Theophrastus , states that it never rains except at intervals of four or five years, and then the rain comes down heavily and is soon over. According to Hobbs , rainfall is sometimes especially abundant in a particular year or even for several consecutive years.

There were fewer mites drowning in the wet felt in the spinetoram detection bio-assay on day one than seen in the initial field trial bio-assay on day one, indicating that the pesticide free leaf surface provided some sort of refuge for the mites. Spinetoram exposure at days one and three ultimately resulted in some mite mortality or mites drowned in the wet felt, but there were fewer overall mites dying and drowning on both sides of the leaf . Mite repellency was different from the control for both treated and untreated sides of the leaf, but on each subsequent bio-assay date, the level of significance dropped until on day 14, there was no statistical separation. Our data suggest that because fewer mites were repelled in the spinetoram detection trial on bio-assay days 7 and 10 and because of the pesticide free side of the leaf, more mites were alive, i.e. fewer picked up a toxic dose or drowned. It remains difficult with our bio-assay system to precisely separate whether or not mites received a toxic dose when repellency levels were high. Our studies were conducted with a conservative dilution rate of 2,843 L of water per ha while the majority of California avocados groves are grown on steep hillsides and utilize helicopter application using 468-935 L of applied water per ha. On these hillside groves, speed sprayers cannot be used and relatively few growers use drag hoses because of the high cost of labor in California. Application by helicopter may not provide complete coverage and many of the interior portions of the avocado tree remain untreated. With consideration of the following factors: helicopter application resulting in uneven distribution of pesticide on hillside avocado groves,square pot the conservative dilution rate used in our trial, our containment of mites on the pesticide treated arenas and providing a pesticide treated/ untreated leaf area, our data suggests that in a field setting, mites may not pick up a toxic dose of spinetoram.

Those mites that do not pick up a toxic dose will likely be repelled by the Thrips are common pests in most blueberry growing regions of the United States. These insects feed on the blueberry leaves, flowers and fruit and cause distorted, discolored, and stunted flush growth and poor development of fruiting wood for the subsequent crop . Many thrips preferentially feed on the styles and ovules, as well as the surrounding new green tissue, or ‘flush growth’ . Some studies have shown that thrips can feed on blueberry pollen and, under severe infestations, cause dimpling on the fruit, which can severely affect marketable yields . In Georgia and Mississippi, a 60% reduction in fruit set has been attributed to thrips injury in southern highbush blueberries . There is substantial variability in the thrips species complex that attacks blueberries across geographic regions of North America . The eastern flower thrips, Frankliniella tritici , and Scirtothrips ruthveni Shull infest northern highbush blueberries in New Jersey . Frankliniella vaccinii Morgan, Catinathrips vaccinophilus and Catinathrips kainos O’Neil are the main thrips species infesting lowbush blueberries in Canada and Maine . In contrast, the Florida flower thrips, F. bispinosa , and F. tritici are the most abundant thrips species in Florida and Georgia, respectively, where southern highbush and rabbiteye blueberries are grown . In the San Joaquin Valley of California, the southern highbush blueberry is a somewhat new host for citrus thrips, Scirtothrips citri . One of its more common native host plants in this area prior to the introduction of citrus was likely laurel sumac, Malosma laurina Abrams . In Florida however, S. citri have been reported on grapes but is rarely found on blueberries . Historically, lowbush varieties of blueberries could only be grown in regions too cold for citrus production. However, the development of heat-tolerant highbush varieties, which has enabled the development of a blueberry industry in the San Joaquin Valley , has also caused blueberries to be grown in a region where citrus and citrus thrips flourish. Other, less common thrips infesting blueberries include tobacco thrips, Frankliniella fusca , Frankliniella hawaiiensis and western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis .

Little is known about the biology, ecology and host plant selection of thrips in southern highbush blueberries, particularly in California and not all varieties are fed on equally by citrus thrips; i.e. there is a distinct varietal preference for some hybrids . Thrips preferences for tender, young flush foliage are well documented and determining the oviposition rates in the varieties of blueberries grown in California will begin to assist researchers in understanding thrips host plant preferences. Based on a survey of growers, the varieties of blueberry predominately planted in California’s SJV are Emerald, Jewel, Misty, O’Neal, Santa Fe and Star . The goal of this research was to determine if oviposition preferences differed between these varieties of blueberries using choice and no-choice oviposition tests and to document which varieties grown in the SJV of California are preferred. Citrus thrips were collected in Delano, Kern County, California from southern highbush blueberries varieties Star, Santa Fe, Jewel, Misty and O’Neal. Thrips were collected on blueberry canes by placing a brown paper bag over the flush growth and clipping the cane off into the bag with shears. This was done approximately 10 times per blueberry variety. The brown paper bags were carefully placed into a cooler with ice packs and brought to a greenhouse located at the University of California, Riverside, Agricultural Operations Field 16 in Riverside, California. Once in the greenhouse, the bags were opened, and canes gently placed on top of 40 potted Misty variety blueberry plants with a large amount of flush growth. The Misty variety was selected for rearing because growers reported it to be of intermediate preference to citrus thrips versus two preferred varieties versus two varieties that thrips appear to build up on to a lesser degree . The brown paper bags that transported the citrus thrips were gently placed on the greenhouse bench with the opening pointed toward the potted plants to entice any remaining thrips to leave the bags and move to the plant foliage. The thrips colony was established and maintained in the greenhouse for 1.3 years before used in the oviposition trials beginning on June 6, 2011 and were augmented with additional thrips in exactly the same manner as described above an additional three times over that 1.3 years.

All blueberry plants were grown in 2 L pots and were watered 3-4 days per week and fertilized as needed with azalea/camellia/ rhododendron acid fertilizer . The potted Misty plants were pruned in the citrus thrips colony greenhouse room and rotated out once only hardened leaves were present on the plants, at which point,blueberries in containers new flushing Misty plants were rotated into the colony cyclically with the flushing and pruning of the colony plants. Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, Lowell, Oregon, USA supplied all potted blueberry plants used for the colony and in oviposition trials. Varieties provided were Emerald, Jewel, Misty, O’Neal, Snowchaser and Star. Snowchaser was a fairly new variety at the time we obtained the plants and was used in our studies in lieu of Santa Fe , which was unavailable. Snowchaser has similar parentage to Santa Fe. Citrus volkameriana V. Ten. & Pasq. and laurel sumac plants were maintained in the same fashion as the blueberry plants but were fertilized with Miracle Grow All-Purpose plant fertilizer as needed. Plants used in the oviposition trials were held in a separate greenhouse from the citrus thrips colony . Potted blueberry with the varieties Emerald, Jewel, Misty, O’Neal, Snowchaser and Star, as well as, flushing citrus and laurel sumac potted plants were placed in random order on a greenhouse bench in 5 replicate blocks of the 8 plants . Two leaves from each plant that were flushing and nearly fully expanded were selected and clip-cages were clipped to the leaves while still attached to the plant such that the experimental arena was located on the abaxial surface of the leaf. Circular clip-cages consisted of two plastic rings covered on one side with a 1 cm thick foam pad enclosing a leaf surface area of 3.1 cm2 . The foam-plastic rings, one of which was covered by ultra fine nylon mesh, were connected by a coiled length of spring steel wire glued to the plastic which allowed the clip cages to attach to the leaf like a clothes pin without visibly damaging the leaves. Two adult female and two male citrus thrips of unknown age were carefully added to the clip cage and left in the cage for 5 days after which the leaf was excised from the plant, with the cage still attached, and was carefully transported to the laboratory. Once in the laboratory, leaves were thoroughly examined for any first instar larvae and adults. The leaves were then boiled in deionized water for 3 minutes in the microwave and stained with methyl red . Eggs were clearly visible using a binocular microscope with transmitted light. This experiment was repeated on two dates total and total counts of eggs and larvae combined were square root transformed pooled data were analyzed using a two-way ANOVA with count data and developmental stage as main treatment factors and means were separated by Tukey’s HSD test. The correlation coefficient between numbers of hatched larvae and eggs was also calculated. Five two L potted blueberry plants, one each of the Emerald, Jewel, O’Neal, Snowchaser and Star varieties were placed inside five replicate “No-thrips” screened bug dorms . Plants were arranged in a circle with the position of a variety randomized in the 5 bug dorms, ensuring that each variety occupied each position in the rotation. For example, positions one through five contained the varieties in order, Star, Jewel, Snowchaser, Emerald, and O’Neal and each subsequent cage’s plants rotated those varieties in that order one position clockwise. This arrangement was conducted twice on the same date . Each pot was reduced to one blueberry cane with approximately the same numbers of leaves , similar cane lengths and leaf flush and canes did not remain in contact with each other. The plants were placed in square foil pans to collect excess water or spilt water after plants were watered. Ten groups of approximately 60 male and 60 female citrus thrips each were collected from the colony the morning of the test and held in 15-dram plastic aspiration vials with a copper mesh screened lid. Adult thrips were of unknown age. The vials were then placed vertically into the center of the bug dorms and the lid removed to allow the thrips to escape. The plants were watered every third day, carefully through the mesh sleeve on the bug dorm door with an adjustable watering wand taking care to not fill the foil trays with water. Thrips were left with the plants for 14 days, after which time the cages were carefully opened, and a “No-thrips sleeve” open at one end was quickly placed over each plant and secured at the base of the cane with double-sided sticky tape. Once the sleeve was securely fastened to the cane, the cane was trimmed at the soil line. The sleeved canes were then transported to the laboratory where the adults were lightly shaken off into the sleeve and leaves quickly examined for remaining adults. If adults were found on the leaves, they were picked up with a paintbrush and added to the respective sleeve. The sleeves no longer containing the canes were placed in a freezer for 10 min and adults were counted. The canes were examined and any larvae found were counted. Once all live thrips were removed, the leaves were stripped from the respective third of each cane, boiled in deionized water for a minimum of 3 minutes in the microwave and stained with methyl red. Older leaf tissue had to be boiled for 5 minutes to clearly see eggs in the leaf. Subsequently, eggs were clearly visible using a binocular microscope using transmitted light. This experiment was replicated twice on one date and data were analyzed using a G-test of goodness-of-fit with plant, location on the plant , larval count and egg count as the main operators in the test.