At the end of 1961, an excavator operator working on a construction site in Kaiseraugst stumbled upon the famous late Roman silver treasure – without realising it. The heavy shovels damaged parts of the valuable objects, and many pieces were scattered. It was not until January 1962 that the spectacular story of the rediscovery began: playing children, attentive walkers and an Innkeeper collected the first finds until archaeologists realised the extent of the treasure.

Gradually, more and more objects came to light. However, some pieces are still missing today – perhaps they will turn up one day.

"I couldn't rest, so we were back at the site at 8 o'clock on Wednesday morning: with Werner Hürbin and Jürg Ewald [...]. Then Mrs Schmid-Leuenberger, the innkeeper at the Löwen, came over the pile of rubble in her kitchen apron. She brought two baking trays and asked if they were ours, saying she had found them where we were searching. It was the large cupid plate (side note: Meerstadt) in niello technique and the large undecorated plate. We are stunned by this turn of events and set about deciphering the depiction. But Mrs Schmid explains that she has more of this stuff in the fish cellar [...]."

(Rudolf Laur-Belart, diary, 21 February 1962, Augusta Raurica archive)