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.