ROMAN FAR AND WIDE

Couple Find Missing 1900-Year-Old Roman Artifact in Their Yard

The stone honors the life of Sextus Congenius Verus, a Roman sailor.

An ancient marble tombstone dating back to the Roman era has been discovered in the yard of a Louisiana couple doing some gardening. Tulane University anthropologist Daniella Santoro and partner Aaron Lorenz were going through the weeds at their home in New Orleans in March when they stumbled across the 1,900-year-old artifact. On it, they recognized Latin writing. Santoro reached out to fellow academics, creating the informal “team tombstone.” Together, they determined it was dedicated to a Roman sailor called Sextus Congenius Verus. They traced it back to the Civitavecchia museum in Italy, which was missing an artifact matching the tombstone’s description. The institution was badly damaged by Allied bombing during the war, and much of its collection was lost. Now, the team is trying to determine exactly how it ended up in Louisiana. Their findings have been documented by D. Ryan Gray, a University of New Orleans archaeologist, in the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. It “reflects a wonderful intersection of a homeowner’s curiosity ultimately bringing to light something unexpected and historically significant,” he wrote. The team also got in contact with the FBI’s art crime team, with efforts now underway to repatriate the slab to Italy. The museum plans to host a celebration when the stone is returned.