Several baskets contained various fruits, including shrivelled grapes and their seeds. Grapes would have been eaten immediately after harvesting and the large pips are often found in excavations of old buildings, as they are quite resistent to decay. Surplus grapes would have been sun-dried to keep as raisins. Analysis of fresh raisins shows that they are rich in sugar, which can amount to as much as 70 per cent of their weight. They keep for quite a long time in an edible condition but eventually they shrivel into hard grains, so it is difficult to decide whether those found in Tutankhamun’s tomb were placed there as dry raisins or as fresh grapes.
The vine is a climbing shrub with no distinct trunk. The stem thickens with age and as the long growths are severely cut back each year, the perennial stem is readily distinguishable by its rough brown bark from the trailing annual shoots. These grow with remarkable speed during the summer months, having started from a bud on the old stem. As the bud swells it produces a shoot bearing five to seven divided (palmate) leaves
Grapes Vitis vinifera.
Which develop on alternate sides of the shoot. Opposite the third, fourth and sometimes the fifth leaf a cluster of flowers is produced, beyond the fifth or sixth leaf only branched tendrils develop opposite them. Each tiny flower has green petals that hold together as a little cap and fall in one piece when the air reaches a certain temperature. The stamens spread out, shedding pollen on to the pistils of its own and neighbouring flowers to effect pollination. Wild ancestral vines, however, have male and female flowers on separate plants.
After the fertilisation of the flowers, fruits develop as small green spheres, which are bitter until they ripen in late summer. They are then either green or red, and very sweet and full of juice, which is dried out to make them into raisins or pressed out to make wine (pp 50-1).
World History
