When workers began digging the foundation for a 18,000-square-foot mansion in a luxurious new gated development in Tarrytown, New York last summer, they didn't expect to pull up much more than dirt and rock. You can understand their surprise, then, when the excavator dipped its bucket into the ground and actually unearthed an ancient, thousand-pound marble slab covered in Latin writing.
That hunk of rock turned out to be a 54 A.D. tombstone belonging to Roman Emperor Claudius - a grandson of Julius Caesar - which had made its way across the world over a hundred years ago. Today, it sits in the Greek and Roman Art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
The Tombstone of Roman Emperor Claudius on the day was excavated from the development site last summer.
"The bucket goes into the ground and out pops this artifact and we're like what could this possibly be? It was just completely shocking," says Andy Todd, President of Greystone on Hudson, the 20-home, 100-acre development where the artifact was found.
The tombstone had been on display at the Villa Borghese in Rome until 1893, when it was purchased by the widow of Josiah Macy, a wealthy man of the shipping and early oil industries. It was brought across the Atlantic and then displayed in the Macy's home, called Greystone Castle, one of several lavish estates along this stretch of the Hudson River.
Greystone Castle, where the tombstone was on display until the home burned down in 1976.
It remained in the castle until a fire broke out in 1976, and the home was immediately demolished. At the time, the assumption was that everything within Greystone Castle was charred and simply disintegrated in the fire, Todd says.
The ancient marble tombstone was the exception, but no one knew this until Todd's crew began building Greystone On Hudson last May. The developer had planned their largest mansion, Six Carriage Trail, for the exact location where Greystone Castle once stood.
The Six Carriage Trail mansion is built where Greystone Castle once stood, and where the valuable artifact had been buried underground since 1976.
When the tombstone was recovered, Todd and his partner, Barry Prevor, did what anyone with questions would do - they turned to Google to do some research.
"We just started learning Latin," he says.
With Google as their guide, Todd says the pair was able to trace back the inscriptions on the stone. They then called the MET, and there, the curators were able to authenticate the object, and asked if they could add it to the exhibit.
Now, on a three-year lease, the ancient object which had been hidden away below ground for more than a century is finally back on display.
h/t: Luxury Listings
