Workers digging up a street in the Slavonian city of Vinkovci have come across a rare find. Buried beneath Zvonarska ulica for 2,000 years, a stone sarcophagus they discovered dates back to the Roman era.
Today a modest railway town, Vinkovci was made a municipium by Hadrian in the early years of the first millennium and two other emperors were born here.
The northern necropolis of the surrounding Roman colony of Aurelia Cibalae stretched from Jurja Dalmatinac ulica to the train station. Since the late 1800s, some 300 Roman graves have been recorded in the vicinity.
The sarcophagus is the first found in Vinkovci in the last 25 years. Damage to the lid points to it having been robbed of its treasure long ago. The artefact will be examined and then placed on display in Vinkovci City Museum.