/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/1f/c5/1fc58f7a-93f0-44b9-bcc3-c957e3c9fec3/roman-gravestone.jpg)
publications
Why Was This Ancient Roman Soldier's Gravestone Hidden in a Louisiana Backyard? Archaeologists Solved the Mystery—and Helped Return the Artifact to Italy
Key takeaways
- Ellen Wexler | Writer and Special Projects Editor
- Scholars assured them that the property wasn’t a cemetery—but the marble artifact was, indeed, a gravestone.
- Now, the ancient funerary marker has finally returned to its home country, according to a statement from FBI New Orleans.
Ellen Wexler | Writer and Special Projects Editor
Add as preferred source The Roman funerary marker in the custody of FBI New Orleans in November 2025 FBI New Orleans. A married couple was clearing weeds last year when they stumbled across a strange marble slab behind their New Orleans home. Hidden beneath overgrown vines, the stone featured a Latin engraving. Was it possible, they wondered, that their house had been built over an abandoned cemetery?
Scholars assured them that the property wasn’t a cemetery—but the marble artifact was, indeed, a gravestone. It had been made for a Roman soldier who died around the second century C.E., and it had been missing from a museum in Civitavecchia, Italy, for decades.
Article preview — originally published by Smithsonian. Full story at the source.
Read full story on Smithsonian →
More top stories
Aggregated and edited by the Scoop newsroom. We surface news from Smithsonian alongside other reporting so you can compare coverage in one place.
Editorial policy · Corrections · About Scoop