The correct name for the liquid endosperm is “coconut water.” It is also called “coconut milk,” but this name concerns a derived product made from a mixture of grated endosperm and milk. The solid edible layer is often referred to as “meat” or “flesh,” words that wrongly suggest animal origin. The fibrous, buoyant mesocarp takes up the largest part of the coconut fruit and is adapted to dispersal by water. It yields coir, a fiber that is used for making ropes, carpets, and mattresses. Among others, the coir is made into rigging and cordage for ships and it is also used for caulking. Coconut has the advantage of not rotting in saltwater. Coconuts can be harvested either by cutting them from the tree or by collecting fallen fruits. Both methods can be applied for the production of copra, although the former has the advantage of removing dead leaves and detecting damage by pests. Because ripe nuts will hang on the tree for another two or three months before falling, the amount of coconut water will be too low for long-distance trade. Therefore, harvesting the nuts by cutting is necessary if they are meant for export. Mostly, coconuts are husked so that the fibrous mesocarp and exocarp is separated from the inner part of the fruit, consisting of the endocarp and the seed . Further processing concerns the drying of the seed into copra. The hard “shells” are split and the “meat” is dried until the moisture content is reduced to about 6 percent. During this process, the “meat” becomes loose and can be separated from the “shell,” raspberry container size which is more effective for drying. If the copra is properly dried, it can be stored almost indefinitely. Coconut oil can be obtained from the copra. Today, the Ababda nomads occasionally use coconuts as containers .
Such containers are called garras or lozes and are mostly made from gourds . They are used for storing meat, animal fat, milk, and rancid butter used as a kind of hair gel. The rancid butter is mixed with additives that enhance the smell. Such containers may be decorated with leather, textile, basketry shells, and beads. The whole-coconut lozes are obtained by removing the “meat,” when it has rotted, through a hole bored through one of the eyes. The small hole is often closed with a stopper made by rolling up a piece of leather adjusted to the size of the hole.The origin of the coconut is still unknown. The possible area of origin is Southeast Asia and Melanesia, whereas India is considered as a possible secondary center of origin . The present distribution comprises the wet tropical lowlands, and the present-day coconut cultivation lies between lat 20° N and 20° S, although the noncommercial growth may extend as far as 27° N and 27° S . There is still scholarly disagreement concerning the introduction of the coconut to East Africa, both with respect to period and dispersal agent. Its spread from India to East Africa by oceanic currents, preceding the distribution by humans, is only based on assumptions, although crossing the Indian Ocean by floating seems to be possible. An early introduction by humans, on the other hand, is plausible, based on the existence of ancient trade contacts between both continents. A reference made by Schuiling and Harries to the Periplus Maris Erythraei is not tenable because it is based on a mistranslation by Schoff of the Greek word nauplios [ναύπλιος]. Egypt fringes the northern distribution line of the coconut. According to Täckholm and Drar , all attempts of cultivating the coconut in Egypt were futile because of unsuitable climatic conditions. The cultivation of coconut palms with the aid of irrigation on the island of Elephantine, near Aswân, is mentioned by Walter .
A striking record concerns the presence of a coconut palm growing near Berenike published by D’Abaza . An English naval officer, who had spent many years in the tropics and must have known the tree very well, made the observation, according to D’Abaza. The observation was confirmed in 1907 by the captain of one of the Khedivial mail boats. Distinguishing the coconut palm from the date palm is, however, quite difficult if no ripe fruits are present. Both trees have a similar shape with scattered, pinnate leaves. Another problem may be the identification of the location, The archaeobotanical record from the Roman Empire is extremely scanty. Excavations at Arikamedu on the southeast coast of India, which cover the period of about 300 BC–AD 200 and later, have yielded remains of the coconut . The presence of all kinds of Roman period remains that have been unearthed attest contact with the West. According to Casson , it could well be that a colony of Westerners resided here who were chiefly engaged in forwarding goods not all the way to Egypt but only to intermediate stations at Muziris and Nelkynda on the southwestern coast of India. Both these sites have not been excavated yet, so nothing can be said about the possible presence of the coconut palm or other plant species there. Anyway, the record of coconut from Arikamedu makes it very likely that the Westerners, putatively present in Arikamedu from the early years of the first century AD until ca. AD 200, would have known it. Unfortunately, no botanical research was carried out in Arikamedu so that only species are recorded that could not have been overlooked: the coconut palm and the palmyra palm . Further botanical evidence of the connection between Berenike and this site, therefore, remains unknown. With the exception of a few husk segments from trench BE99-33, all fragments of coconut unearthed in Berenike concern endocarp fragments. The unbalanced representation of different kinds of fruit fragments in the sub-fossil record suggests that most coconut fruits were traded as dehusked, whole fruits. It is also possible that part of the coconut had been traded as copra, but the chance of recovering such pieces is small, as no detectable waste is produced and recovery relies on discarded pieces.
Unopened coconuts can be kept for consumption until all the liquid endosperm has disappeared. As soon as the coconut is opened, the production of free fatty acids starts and consumption cannot be delayed too long. To exclude the possibility of contamination, a radiocarbon date has been obtained from one fragment, originating from BE96-13.002 and giving 1935 ± 35 BP . The calibrated date coincides with the first two centuries AD. No attempt has been made to convert coconut fragments to whole specimens. Taking into account the scattered distribution of these fragments in trash deposits and the estimated expected finds in the unexcavated area, we can deduce that the coconut was not a rare commodity in either early or late habitation periods. This interpretation is supported by the fact that most coconut fragments were not worked after consumption of its “meat.” So far, only five worked fragments have been unearthed. Two of them, which have holes measuring 7.5 and 13 mm, were found in the same trench . It is possible that they were used for making beads or buttons. In trench BE99-21, a fragment was found with a carved decoration showing a pattern of lines at a right angle. Trench BE99-33 yielded two worked fragments that looked like cups with a diameter of approximately 6.5 cm. One of these fragments still had some resin present along part of its rim. Actually, this low frequency of worked fragments of such an exotic fruit,raspberry plant container having an attractive size and a hard endocarp, making it suitable for fashioning into all kinds of decorative and useful articles, is striking. Even so, it is to be expected that future excavations at Berenike or any other Roman settlement will unearth worked fragments of this nut. As far as the Indian subcontinent is concerned, it is very likely that the coconuts from Berenike would have been imported from ports along the Malabar coast. The most productive area of coconuts in India is confined to its interior and the present name of this state is Kerala, which literally means “the land of the coconut.” The abundance of coconut palms is, for example, expressed in the description of the landscape of Tyndis in a Tamil poem cited by de Romanis , saying that “In its immense fields grow coconut palms laden with fruit, . . .” Due to the activity of pirates, Tyndis was abandoned, as the people moved to the more southerly Muziris and Nelkynda. The cultivation of the coconut palm at isolated spots along the strait of Bab el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden, as recorded from the last centuries, leaves open the possibility of a shorter trade route for the coconut. If so, coconuts might have been obtained from Muza or Kanê. Today, this area falls outside the main coconut producing areas and it is, therefore, merely speculative to assume this was an alternative trade route. Coconut fragments belonging to several specimens were also found in Quseir al-Qadim, though dated to the Mamluk period . The only other reference of coconut concerns an Egyptian specimen of unknown age and origin, kept at the Florence museum.
Initially, E. Bonnet did not preclude the possibility of a Greco-Roman date, suggesting that the coconut was merely a curiosity from India . Later, however, he expresses doubt about its ancient date. The coconut is mentioned for the first time on a list that presents all the objects that were collected by Dr. Alessandro Ricci during his travels in Egypt in 1818 and 1822. This list was compiled by M. Arcangelo Migliarini in 1932 on the occasion of the acquisition of the collection by the archduke of Toscane. The coconut is described in the last part of this catalogue as “Un frutto di Cocco. Una mezza scorza di un piccolo cocco” . Because this last part of the list deals with Ricci’s anthropological collection, it is assumed that it is of recent date, despite the fact that a contemporary is of the opinion that it is an old coconut indeed . The reliability of Italian inventories from the nineteenth century and the fact that Riccipays no special attention to the coconut argues for a recent date. But the curious thing is that an ordinary fragment of a coconut is considered as an anthropological object. A definite answer concerning its age, therefore, can only be obtained by radiocarbon dating. It has frequently been suggested that coconut oil was present in Egyptian graves. According to Lucas and Harris , however, this assumption is wrong, because the strong smell is due to a very small proportion of nonoic acid, which had been formed as a result of decomposition of fatty materials.Among the many beads that were found at Berenike, four specimens could be identified as Job’s tears. This bead is made of the false fruit of Job’s tears, a grass species that is closely related to maize . In maize, male and female flowers are arranged in separate inflorescences, in which each female inflorescence consists of a number of fertile flowers and is enclosed by a series of almost bladeless leaves. In Job’s tears, however, each inflorescence bears both female and male flowers, and only the lower fertile flower of each inflorescence is enclosed by a tough and modified sheathing bract or involucre. The slender axis of the inflorescence that bears the male flowers protrudes through the somewhat oblique opening of the callous bract. Once the fruit is detached from the stem, Job’s tears is already effectively a bead, as the basal area has an opening as well as the top. Moreover, the grain is folded lengthwise around the axis, creating a natural groove that facilitates its piercing. The specimen from Berenike has a hard shell, which is indicative of the wild species that is used for bead making. The decorative fruits are mostly tear-shaped to globular in shape, have a white to brown, shiny coating and are 6 to 12 mm long, making them applicable to all kinds of bead work. Although the glossy surface of the Roman specimen from Berenike had disappeared, the shape, the basal perforation, and the characteristic orifice at the top of the fruit justify the identification.