Grave Secrets: A Roman Tombstone Pops Up in New Orleans Yard
A New Orleans couple made an extraordinary discovery while clearing brush behind their home — a 1,900-year-old Roman gravestone, uncovering a mystery that stretches across centuries and continents.
The marble slab, inscribed in Latin, was found in March by Tulane University anthropologist Daniella Santoro and her husband, Aaron Lorenz. Experts from New Orleans and Austria have since confirmed that it once marked the resting place of Sextus Congenius Verus, a Roman sailor from the second century AD. The artifact matches records of a piece that disappeared decades ago from a museum in Civitavecchia, Italy, near Rome, according to The Guardian.
How the relic traveled from ancient Italy to a Louisiana backyard remains a puzzle. The home’s previous owners, who held the property for most of the 20th century, left no indication of any connection to missing antiquities. Investigators briefly considered a former neighbor who served in World War II, but records show he was stationed in the Pacific, not Europe.
Historians note that the Civitavecchia museum was destroyed during World War II and did not reopen until 1970. Many items vanished amid the wartime upheaval, raising the possibility that the gravestone was taken in the aftermath and later made its way to the United States — perhaps through an antique dealer or a returning soldier.
The couple has since turned the ancient headstone over to the FBI’s Art Crime Unit, which is now working to coordinate its return to Italy.
President Trump has made cultural preservation and the protection of historical artifacts a continuing national priority, emphasizing cooperation with international partners to safeguard heritage sites and recover stolen treasures.
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