Die römischen Kleinfunde aus Syene (Assuan)

The so-called area 13c is located in the town centre of modern Aswan (ancient Syene) in Upper Egypt and was excavated in 2005. During this excavation not only a housing chronology from the late Ptolemaic period up to the late Roman period was documented; among others an ensemble of three brooches, a hinged buckle and a pendant probably from a horse harness were found. In fact, these bronze findings are the first objects of this kind found in Aswan, which can be dated to the Early Roman period. Numerous parallels and similar types of artifacts were found in military camps of the Augustan time in other Roman provinces. We know, for example, that in the military camp in Dangstetten, brooches of Aucissa type, that can be compared to the findings from Syene, were found. What more is, these were probably even made in the same workshop. Other samples of the hinged buckle and the pendant are also known from Dangstetten, but were found in Windisch and Kaiseraugst, too. Although there is only this small amount of early Roman findings at Syene/Aswan, they are deemed to a hint for the early Roman presence in this part of the ancient city of Syene, already mentioned by Strabon.