Buried Treasure

I am fascinated by stories of works of art, objects, and literature discovered in unlikely places and works sold for a few dollars because the owner did not recognize them for what they were. They have been discovered in kitchens, barns, and basements, but buried in a garden is something else again!

This story seems unique in that the object was found in the ground and came from another country. You may have already read about the couple in New Orleans who were clearing the underbrush in their backyard when they came upon a gravestone. What was most unusual was that its inscription was in Latin. It began “To the spirits of the dead from Sextus Congenius Versus” and continued to say that he had served in the military for 22 years and died at age 42.

The couple were naturally curious and consulted with a professor at Tulane University, who contacted other scholars in Louisiana and abroad to solve the mystery. They were able to figure out part of the puzzle and learned that the gravestone had been laid some 1,900 years ago in Civitavecchia, a port about 100 miles north of Rome. They knew it was discovered in the 1860s, and in 1910 was in a municipal library. Then, in 1918, it was recorded in the Museo Civico in Civitavecchia, which was destroyed during the bombing in World War II.

How did it get to New Orleans, of all places? This is where modern technology can help in historical research. The story went viral, and a couple who read it remembered that the woman’s grandfather had brought it back after the war and had it on display in a case in his home. It was passed on through the family, and the granddaughter and her husband put it in their backyard, planted a tree behind it, but forgot about it when they moved. It will eventually be returned to Italy. Obviously, I have shortened this story, but for all the details, just Google it!

The above seems to be a unique story in the sense that the object was found in the ground and from a foreign country. But there are many stories more closely related to the United States that are exciting to read about, and we might even learn history from these discoveries.

For instance, just last year at the Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, civil engineers discovered under over 6 feet of sand about 70 items, including skeletal remains, an early ground stone, and a series of community campsites with remnants of mesquite charcoal dating from over 8,000 years ago.

A manuscript of an unpublished short story called “Temperature” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, written in 1939, was found in plain sight in the rare book archive at Princeton University. Have you ever had a document you felt should be kept, but just did not know where to file it? I imagine the owner, in this case, thought leaving it in the library made it more likely to be discovered when the time was right.

Sunken cargo ships and World War II planes that crashed have been found in the Great Lakes. The most unusual discovery in those cold waters is probably the two-story house that a moving company in Minnesota attempted to transport across the ice of Lake Superior, but the ice did not hold, and the truck and house sank! When the ice melted, a salvage team brought them up from the water. Imagine reporting that one to your insurance company!

The strange life of objects is always worth following.