The 1st-millennium port site at Zawyet Sultan (known during Egypt's pharaonic times as Hebenu) offers research on a global scope. The settlement functioned as an integral node connecting a wide range of trade, spanning from Northeast Africa as far as Southeast Asia. Imports from global regions have been discovered during our pilot survey in 2025, incl. materials from Tunesia, Ethiopia, Italy, Iraq, China, India and Sri Lanka. These local data show us how global trade trends continued and adapted as they become visible and measurable within Egyptian sites such as Zawyet Sultan, from the Ptolemaic (300 BCE), into the Roman/Coptic and early Islamic era (700-1000 CE). The archaeological study of non-elite Nile settlements and 1st-millennium river ports have not received much attention from researchers so far, so our fieldwork hopes to contribute significant new findings, innovative research tools, and expanded interpretations.
We are excited to collaborate with the ongoing Egyptological project of Zawyet Sultan's site director Prof. Dr. Richard Bussmann from Cologne University. At Leiden University, the ROZA survey is part of the Ancient Networks project coordinated by Dr. Marike van Aerde. Project reports will be published annually and will be updated here.
Dr. Marike van Aerde documents structural remains at the Roman-era site of Zawyet Sultan. (Photo by A. Mohns)
Our first survey’s aims were twofold: to complete a full overview of all visible structural remains in the town area, and a survey of all the surface-level pottery remains of the same area. A digital QGIS grid was constructed of the zone that allowed us to investigate the area in a sequence of grids. Only non-evasive methods were used for our documentation: fabric analysis of pottery, digital photography, digital structural scans with a mobile device, and object description. All data descriptions have been gathered in databases for future reference and subsequent interpretations concerning the nature and long-term development of the site throughout the 1st millennium AD.
In the 2025 season, our Team 1 surveyed the town structures. They recorded, scanned and described 69 structural remains in total, including Roman mudbrick tower houses as well as riverside manufacture centers with limestone presses, grind stones, and large collection vessels. Team 2 of the survey was concerned with all ceramic finds. A sequence of evenly spread grids were investigated and representative samples of surface pottery sherds were analyzed.
The majority of pottery finds so far date to the late Antique period, from ca. 4th century AD until 7th century AD, matching the late Roman and Byzantine eras. Earlier Ptolemaic and early Roman examples are more rare. Only 1-2 % of the pottery can be dated to the early Islamic period. In the western zone of the site, matching for the most part the section identified for manufacture-related structures, a notable amount of Roman-era storage amphora were found: this seems to indicate the storage of oils from the numerous presses found in the same area.
Based on 2025 ROZA survey’s preliminary findings, the Roman-era site of Zawyet Sultan appears to have been an active town focused on trade and manufacture, and with evidence of long-term residential presence throughout the 1st millennium AD, up until the early Islamic era. The continuation of the pottery survey will shed more light on emerging patterns of the pottery types and related functions throughout the site. The structural data will be used to construct a more comprehensive map of the Roman/Late-Antique site so that it can be understood and navigated more effectively.
Above: PhD researchers Daniele Zampierin and Alex Mohns setting out on an early-morning survey. Below: PhD researchers Sam Botan, Alex Mohns and Daniele Zampierin at work throughout the site, September 2025. (Photos by M. van Aerde).
The 2025 ROZA survey team (from left to right): Daniele Zampierin, Alex Mohns, Marike van Aerde, and Sam Botan. (Photo by A. Everts)