10/17/2025

Missing 1,900-year-old Roman Artifact Discovered in a New Orleans Garden

Uncovering how a grave marker ended up in a backyard in New Orleans

Daniella Santoro and her husband were clearing underbrush from the backyard of their New Orleans home in March when they stumbled on a mystery that spanned continents and centuries.

What they first thought was a massive rock turned out to be the gravestone of a Roman soldier: Sextus Congenius Verus, a Thracian who sailed aboard the warship Asclepius before dying at age 42 — 1,900 years ago.

The couple eventually learned that the stone had been missing from an Italian museum since the building was bombed in World War II. But Santoro knew none of that history when she stumbled on the weathered stone.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.