ORIGINAL ARTICLE Changing foodways: watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) consumption in Roman and Islamic Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt Alison Cox Æ Marijke van der Veen Received: 5 December 2007 / Accepted: 17 April 2008 / Published online: 17 June 2008 Ó Springer-Verlag 2008 Abstract The identification of size differences in water- melon seeds recovered at Roman and Islamic period Quseir al-Qadim, Egypt, initiated research into the signature of seed eating. Distinct breakage patterns were found on the testa of watermelon seeds eaten by seven volunteers. Comparison of these patterns with those of the archaeo- logical material established that some of the watermelon seeds at Quseir al-Qadim were eaten during the Islamic, but not the Roman, period. This, plus a size difference in the seeds (larger in the Islamic period), has raised questions about which subspecies of Citrullus lanatus was/were present at this site, and exactly when human consumption of the sweet fruit flesh and the seeds was first established in Egypt. Ancient DNA research may be needed to resolve these questions. Keywords Watermelon Á Citrullus lanatus Á Foodways Á Seed eating Á Quseir al-Qadim Introduction Archaeobotany is concerned with the identification and analysis of plant species found in archaeological contexts. These botanical remains are used to reconstruct past human/plant relationships such as agricultural systems, including strategies for feeding animals, exploitation of wild resources, dietary breadth, and social differentiation in access to food. The accuracy of these reconstructions is highly dependent on our ability to correctly identify plant remains, and identification is thus an important focus of our work. However, as Sherratt (1991) has pointed out, people do not eat species, they eat food. So how do we move from our list of identified species to a reconstruction of food consumption? Here we aim to address this issue by looking at one particular food—watermelon, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. et Nakai—and attempt to reconstruct the way in which this particular food was eaten. The term foodways used in the title is here used to refer to the complex, culturally specific practices relating to food, i.e. what is eaten, how it is eaten, acquired, prepared and who participates in the meal. The case study is Quseir al-Qadim, a Roman and Islamic port located on the Red Sea coast of Egypt and used in the trade of foodstuffs (especially spices) from India and fur- ther afield (Van der Veen 2003; Van der Veen et al. in press). The rich assemblages of desiccated plant remains from this site are currently being studied at the University of Leicester, to reconstruct aspects of the Roman and Islamic spice trade, the diet and foodways of the people living and working in the port, and the fodder supplied to the working animals used in the transport of the foods to the Nile valley. The Roman deposits at this site date to the 1st–3rd centuries A.D., the Islamic deposits to the 11th–15th centuries A.D. The watermelon seeds were recovered from a series of large midden (refuse) deposits. Today the seeds of watermelon and other genera of the Cucurbitaceae are eaten as a snack food (Fig. 1); they are a rich source of fat and protein. This practice is common in many regions, including Egypt and the other North African countries, as well as the eastern Mediterranean. This raises the question of whether the watermelon seeds from Quseir represent the consumption of the fruit flesh, the seeds or both. Communicated by M. Latalowa. A. Cox Á M. van der Veen (&) School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK e-mail: mvdv1@leicester.ac.uk 123 Veget Hist Archaeobot (2008) 17 (Suppl 1):S181–S189 DOI 10.1007/s00334-008-0164-8