The 2nd century grave marker of a Roman sailor has been discovered in the back yard of a Tulane University anthropologist in New Orleans. The stone slab with a Latin inscription was uncovered by anthropologist Daniella Santoro and her husband Aaron Lorenz when they were clearing out some underbrush at their historic shotgun house in the Carrolton neighborhood of New Orleans.Concerned that they might have stumbled on a grave from an old built-over cemetery (there are several know in the city, and doubtless more that are still unknown), they reached out to University of New Orleans archaeologist Dr. D. Ryan Gray who has worked to map these lost cemeteries. He was able to exclude the possibility of it being a historic burial. Ryan and Santoro shared the photos with Latin experts who read and translated the inscription.The inscription reads:D(is) M(anibus)/S(e)x(to) Congenio Vero/mi(liti) cl(assis) p(raetoriae) Mi(senensis) natio(ne) Bes(so)/vixit an(nis) XLII mi(litavit) an(nis)/XXII, Tutela ((triere)) Asc(l)epio/fece(runt) Atilius Carus/et Vettius Longi/nus heredes/b(ene) m(erenti)(To the spirits of the dead for Sextus Congenius Verus, soldier of the praetorian fleet Misenensis, from the tribe (natio) of the Bessi, (who) lived 42 years (and) served 22 in the military, on the trireme Asclepius. Atilius Carus and Vettius Longinus, his heirs, made (this) for him well deserving.)As Sextus Congenius Verus was not buried in New Orleans, this confirmed that it was an artifact deracinated from the ancient grave it was marked. In fact, a stone matching the description was listed as missing from the National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, an ancient port on the Tyrrhenian sea 35 miles northwest of Rome.Trajans favorite architect, Apollodorus of Damascus, built the rectangular port in 106-108 A.D. as a secure and convenient resupply station for the ships of the imperial fleet. It became known as Centumcellae and was an important strategic base for the Roman navy in the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. Many sailors were buried in a cemetery near the harbour there.Numerous funerary inscriptions from the cemetery were discovered in 1864 during construction of a prison, the majority of them belonging to the classiari of the fleet. Not only do the inscriptions give us the names of sailors, but also the types of vessels, names and whether they were attached to the fleets of Ravenna or Misenum.The Centumcellae funerary inscriptions record the quadriremes Fortuna and Po, the triremes Danae, Nereis and Augusta, the Liburna Diana of the Ravenna fleet, and the quadrireme Dacia, triremes Castor, Aesculapio, Salamina and Partica and the bireme Clementia of the detachment of the fleet of Misenum.Sailors were generally drawn from the lowest social classes. In the imperial era, they were recruited from less urbanized and Romanized areas of the empire, including Moesia Inferior, located between the Danube and the Black Sea. The Bessi are believed to have came from the lands south of the Danube. They are a significant presence on the funerary epitaphs of sailors in the Roman Imperial navy, with at least 50 documented.The ancient port was expanded by the Popes but was still in active commercial and military use in the first half of the 20th century. That unfortunately made it a target for Allied bombing raids in 1943 and 1944 and the port was completely destroyed. The museum that housed the funerary inscriptions was also destroyed, and many of its contents were lost. Inventories compiled after the war used older inventories rather than starting from scratch, so there are artifacts on the list that have not actually been seen since before the devastation of the war.Sextus Congenius Verus could have been taken by an Allied soldier during the war or sold after the war when there was no effective oversight of the antiquities trade and ended up in New Orleans. Attempts to trace the background of the stone have been thus far unsuccessful.Getting the stone back to its rightful owner was a priority, but international repatriation of antiquities is a complex process. Thankfully, research and scholarship are truly a cooperative effort, and soon enough, Santoro assembled what she would eventually call her Team Tombstone, with Lusnia taking the lead on contacting the museum in Civitavecchia with this unlikely story.After consulting with Tess Davis, executive director of the Antiquities Coalition, which specializes in the repatriation of stolen and looted items of cultural heritage, we concluded that the case needed to proceed through the FBIs Art Crime Team. They helpfully agreed to pick up the stone and keep it in custody while the repatriation process began. []The staff at Civitavecchia are excited to welcome it back, and they are hoping to throw a celebration when that happens.