Roman grave marker found in New Orleans yard left there by US soldier’s granddaughter

Daniella Santoro and Aaron Lorenz found the grave marker for a Roman sailor in the yard of their home. Photograph: Courtesy D Ryan Gray and Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans

The ancient Roman grave marker recently found in the back yard of a New Orleans home had evidently been inherited and left there by the granddaughter of a US soldier who fought in Italy during the second world war.

In statements that all but solved an international historical mystery, Erin Scott O’Brien told two local media outlets that her grandfather, Charles Paddock Jr, kept the 1,900-year-old artifact in a display case at his home in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood before his death in 1986.