Vintage Roman Tombstone Discovered in New Orleans Garden Deposited by American Serviceman's Granddaughter

The ancient Roman grave marker newly found in a lawn in New Orleans was evidently passed down and abandoned there by the female descendant of a military man who fought in Italy throughout the global conflict.

In statements that all but solved an international historical mystery, Erin Scott O’Brien told area journalists that her ancestor, Charles Paddock Jr, stored the 1,900-year-old relic in a display case at his residence in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood before his death in 1986.

She explained she was unsure precisely how Paddock acquired an object documented as absent from an Italian museum near Rome that lost a large part of its holdings amid wartime air raids. However the soldier fought in Italy with the armed forces in that period, tied the knot with Adele there, and went back to New Orleans to work as a musical voice teacher, O’Brien recounted.

It happened regularly for troops who fought in Europe during the second world war to come home with keepsakes.

“I just thought it was a piece of art,” she stated. “I didn’t realize it was an ancient … artifact.”

Anyway, what she first believed was a unremarkable stone slab ended up being passed down to her after Paddock’s death, and she set it as a yard ornament in the rear area of a residence she bought in the city’s Carrollton area in 2003. O’Brien forgot to retrieve the item with her when she sold the house in 2018 to a couple who found the object in March while cleaning up undergrowth.

The couple – anthropologist Daniella Santoro of the academic institution and her husband, Aaron Lorenz – understood the artifact had an writing in Latin. They contacted academics who concluded the item was a headstone honoring a circa second-century Roman seafarer and serviceman named the historical figure.

Furthermore, the researchers found out, the headstone corresponded to the description of one listed as lost from the local institution of Civitavecchia, Italy, near where it had initially uncovered, as one of the consulting academics – University of New Orleans archaeologist Dr. Gray – wrote in a publication published online earlier this week.

The homeowners have since handed over the artifact to the FBI’s art crime team, and efforts to return the relic to the Italian museum are ongoing so that facility can exhibit correctly it.

O’Brien, who resides in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, said she recalled her grandfather’s strange stone again after the archaeologist’s article had been reported from the global press. She said she reached out to local media after a conversation from her ex-husband, who told her that he had read a article about the item that her ancestor had once owned – and that it actually turned out to be a piece from one of the history’s renowned empires.

“We were in shock about it,” O’Brien said. “It’s just unbelievable how this came about.”

Gray, meanwhile, said it was a relief to learn how the Roman sailor’s gravestone ended up behind a house more than 5,400 miles away from its original location.

“I assumed we would identify several possible carriers of the artifact,” the archaeologist stated. “I didn’t anticipate discovering the exact heir – making it exhilarating to uncover the truth.”