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Recent excavations in the southwestern part of the embayment that served as the ancient harbour of Berenike uncovered, among others, a metallurgical furnace from late Hellenistic times. An analysis of this discovery, made in trench BE14/15-102, offers insight into metallurgical production taking place in the harbour zone in the last years of the Ptolemaic kingdom. The early Roman phase, as attested in this trench, indicates a restructuring of this part of the harbour and its new, changed function as an open-circulation area, probably with some wealthy residences nearby.

The Smaragdos region, currently in the Wadi Gemal National Park (Eastern Desert, Egypt) was well known in antiquity for the emeralds that could be found there. The exploitation of emerald mines, especially in the Roman period, led to the creation of an important network of settlements linked to the procurement and commercial distribution of this semiprecious stone, which was considered highly valuable in ancient times. The overview of the emerald trade in Roman antiquity presented in this paper will focus on Sikait, the most important and best known of the mining settlements in the Eastern Desert.

Ten years after the Red Sea III conference: "Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea", held at the British Museum on 27–28 October 2006, enough new data has been made available to warrant another in-depth look at the archaeology of natural resources extraction and processing (mines, workshops, etc.). The main themes of the conference are: 1) economic significance of commerce in natural resources passing through the Red Sea; 2) intermediaries in the natural resources trade (“Who dun’it”); 3) other archaeological categories coexistent with the natural resources trade (pottery, glass etc.); 4) language/epigraphy: terms for natural resources: mining and processing/crafts work; 5) ethnoarchaeological evidence for exploitation and processing of natural resources