Ancient Roman Tombstone Uncovered in New Orleans Backyard Deposited by US Soldier's Granddaughter

The historic Roman grave marker just uncovered in a lawn in New Orleans appears to have been passed down and placed there by the heir of a American serviceman who was deployed in Italy in the global conflict.

Through comments that all but solved an international historical mystery, the heir informed local media outlets that her grandpa, the veteran, stored the ancient artifact in a showcase at his residence in New Orleans’ Gentilly district until he died in 1986.

The granddaughter recounted she was uncertain exactly how the soldier ended up with an item documented as absent from an Rome-area institution near Rome that misplaced most of its collection because of wartime air raids. But her grandfather was stationed in Italy with the armed forces throughout the conflict, wed his spouse Adele there, and came home to New Orleans to build a profession as a vocal coach, she recalled.

It happened regularly for troops who fought in Europe throughout the global conflict to return with keepsakes.

“I assumed it was simply a decorative piece,” the granddaughter remarked. “I didn’t realize it was an ancient … artifact.”

Anyway, what she first believed was a unremarkable marble tablet was eventually handed down to her after the veteran’s demise, and she set it as a garden decoration in the garden of a home she bought in the city’s Carrollton area in 2003. She neglected to remove the artifact with her when she moved out in 2018 to a couple who discovered the relic in March while clearing away undergrowth.

The husband and wife – researcher Daniella Santoro of Tulane University and her husband, her spouse – realized the artifact had an inscription in the Latin language. They contacted researchers who concluded the artifact was a headstone memorializing a circa 2nd-century Roman mariner and soldier named the Roman individual.

Furthermore, the group learned, the tombstone corresponded to the details of one documented as absent from the municipal museum of the Rome-area town, near where it had originally been found, as one of the consulting academics – University of New Orleans expert Dr. Gray – wrote in a publication published online recently.

Santoro and Lorenz have since surrendered the relic to the authorities, and plans to send back the artifact to the institution are ongoing so that institution can exhibit correctly it.

O’Brien, who resides in the New Orleans area of nearby town, said she remembered her grandpa’s unusual artifact again after Gray’s column had received coverage from the worldwide outlets. She said she contacted local media after a conversation from her ex-husband, who shared that he had seen a news story about the artifact that her ancestor had once possessed – and that it truly was to be a artifact from one of the planet’s ancient cultures.

“It left us completely stunned,” O’Brien said. “It’s just unbelievable how this came about.”

Dr. Gray, for his part, said it was a satisfaction to learn how Congenius Verus’s gravestone traveled behind a home more than a great distance away from the Italian city.

“I assumed we would identify several possible carriers of the artifact,” Gray said. “I didn’t really expect to actually find the actual person – so it’s pretty exciting to know how it ended up here.”