Colonia Aurelia Cibalae, today’s city of Vinkovci in eastern Croatia, was an important Roman city in southern Pannonia. Due to its favorable location in the Pannonian valley on the banks of the Bosut River, in close vicinity of the Roman limes, the city found itself at many junctions of both roads and rivers that connected the western and eastern parts of the Roman Empire. Even two Roman emperors, Valentinian I and Valens, were born there (Fig. 4).

To date, numerous archeological excavations have been carried out in Vinkovci and have brought to light significant information about the way of life and the appearance of the town from Roman period Pannonia.

The fragment of a glass-lamp disk was found at the Vinkovci-Korzo site during archaeological research carried out from May to July 2008. The excavations were conducted by the curator-archaeologist Hrvoje Vulić from the Gradski muzej Vinkovci (Municipal Museum of Vinkovci) and financed with city funding. The research location covers the area of King Zvonimir Street from the intersection with Ban Josip Jelačić Street to the intersection with Croatian Victims and Matija Antun Reljković Streets. The excavation area of probe B, where the lamp fragment was found, was 13 m × 24 m and the expected excavation depth was 3.2 m, according to the geomechanical project. The remains of older, probably Gepid and younger Roman, foundations of building structures were found on the site. They were both analyzed using the C-14 method and are dated to the periods 570–640 CE and 250–400 CE respectively (Fig. 5).11

Many fragments of glass vessels were found in probe B12 (balsamaria, square bottles, beakers and bowls; fragments with facet-cut decoration, blue dots, incised lines; burnt glass), most of which indicate early Roman production and use, dating from the second half of the first to the third century CE. The fragment of a lamp disk from Cibalae is difficult to date precisely, as it was found in a waste pit cut by one of the foundations of the fifth-century Gepid house; the material in the pit shows a wide chronological range spanning from the third to the fifth century. However, as mentioned above, most glass fragments found in probe B are more characteristic of an earlier Roman period in typology. The color of the lamp fragment from Cibalae is also characteristic of an early Roman period, especially in southern Pannonia.13 And, finally, the majority of all other Roman glass lamps known date between the first and third centuries CE. Therefore, based on all the evidence mentioned above we can assume that lamp was made in the third century at the latest, although the possibility of an earlier date is very likely.

The fragment with an opening found in Cibalae is most likely a fragment of a glass disk of a Roman oil lamp modeled after its clay equivalent, which makes it the second discovered artifact, along with the one from Mursa, in the entire Croatian part of the former Roman province of Pannonia.