Ancient Roman Empire Headstone Uncovered in NOLA Yard Placed by American Serviceman's Descendant

The old Roman tombstone recently discovered in a back yard in New Orleans appears to have been inherited and placed there by the granddaughter of a American serviceman who served in Italy throughout the global conflict.

Via declarations that all but solved an international historical mystery, Erin Scott O’Brien told local media outlets that her grandpa, the veteran, displayed the historic item in a display case at his home in New Orleans’ Gentilly area prior to his passing in 1986.

She explained she was uncertain precisely how the soldier came to possess an object listed as lost from an museum in Italy near Rome that had destroyed a large part of its holdings because of wartime air raids. Yet Paddock served in Italy with the armed forces throughout the conflict, tied the knot with Adele there, and returned to New Orleans to work as a musical voice teacher, the descendant explained.

It was also not uncommon for troops who fought in Europe in World War II to come home with souvenirs.

“I just thought it was a piece of art,” the granddaughter remarked. “I was unaware it was a millennia-old … historical object.”

In any event, what the heir originally assumed was a nondescript marble piece turned out to be handed down to her after Paddock’s death, and she put it as a lawn accent in the rear area of a residence she bought in the city’s Carrollton area in 2003. O’Brien forgot to take the stone with her when she sold the property in 2018 to a pair who found the object in March while cleaning up brush.

The husband and wife – scholar the anthropologist of the university and her husband, Aaron Lorenz – understood the item had an engraving in Latin. They sought advice from academics who established the artifact was a tombstone dedicated to a approximately 2nd-century Roman sailor and soldier named the historical figure.

Additionally, the team found out, the tombstone matched the account of one listed as lost from the municipal museum of the Italian city, near where it had originally been found, as an involved researcher – UNO specialist Dr. Gray – explained in a publication published online Monday.

The couple have since turned the headstone over to the FBI’s art crime team, and attempts to return the item to the Civitavecchia museum are in progress so that museum can show appropriately it.

She, now located in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie suburb, said she recalled her grandfather’s strange stone again after Gray’s column had received coverage from the international news media. She said she contacted a news outlet after a discussion from her ex-husband, who shared that he had come across a news story about the object that her ancestor had once possessed – and that it actually turned out to be a item from one of the world’s great classical civilizations.

“We were utterly amazed,” she commented. “The way this unfolded is simply incredible.”

Dr. Gray, for his part, said it was a relief to learn how the Roman sailor’s gravestone made its way near a residence more than thousands of miles away from the Italian city.

“I expected we would compile a list of potential individuals connected to its journey,” the archaeologist stated. “I didn’t anticipate discovering the exact heir – making it exhilarating to uncover the truth.”