Daniella Santoro, a PhD candidate at Tulane University, never expected to find an ancient Roman gravestone in her backyard, but that’s exactly what happened one day in March as her husband was doing yardwork.

Initially, Santoro thought the artifact might’ve signaled the burial place of a loved one or pet.

“It definitely looked different from anything we’d ever seen,” she told USA TODAY in a phone interview. “I never once really considered with any seriousness that it was actually an authentic artifact.”

Santoro immediately went to Facebook and posted a photo of the marble tablet, which had noticeable Latin etchings, hoping someone in her network might know where it came from.

One of her contacts connected her with Susann S. Lusnia, associate professor of classical studies at Tulane U

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