The discovery of a Roman soldier’s 1,900-year-old tombstone in a New Orleans garden has spurred a transatlantic investigation into how it got there.
Sextus Congenius Verus was a sailor and soldier who died at the age of 42, according to the Latin-inscribed grave marker. Tulane University anthropologist Daniella Santoro unearthed it in March while clearing undergrowth in her yard. Santoro and fellow academics soon realized that an item matching its description had disappeared from an Italian museum destroyed during World War II, although subsequent sleuthing failed to reveal how it came to Louisiana.
Verus’ stone will be repatriated to its original home in Civitavecchia, where museum staff plan to throw a party upon its return, The Guardian wrote.