She Used It as a Step to Mount Horses, Then Took Closer Look

Ancient Greek inscription results in rock going up for auction
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 8, 2021 9:40 AM CST
She Used It as a Step to Mount Horses, Then Took Closer Look
The Roman stone.   (Woolley and Wallis auction house)

For years, a UK woman used the same rock in her stable as a stepping stone while mounting her horses. Then she happened to notice laurel wreaths and some kind of inscription carved into it, reports CNET. Turns out, that humble rock is a Roman marble slab dating back to the second century AD. The Greek inscription reads, "The people (and) the Young Men (honor) Demetrios (son) of Metrodoros (the son) of Leukios," per CNN. The UK auction house of Woolley and Wallis plans to offer it for sale in the spring, with a price of about $20,000 expected.

In a news release, the auction house says the slab was likely brought back to the UK by a wealthy patron who went on a historical tour to learn "about Classical art and culture" in the 18th or 19th century. But how it ended up discarded on the woman's property in the English village of Whiteparish is a "complete mystery, and that's where we'd like the public's help," says the auction house. It explains the home in Whiteparish was constructed in the mid-1960s and hopes someone involved in the construction might remember the source of the rubble used. The best guess is that the slab was carved in Greece or modern-day Turkey, per Live Science. (More archaeology stories.)

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