Attic Inscriptions in UK Collections: 13: Mount Stewart

AIUK 13 publishes the only Athenian inscription known to be currently located in Northern Ireland: it is held at the Mount Stewart estate (County Down), home of the Stewart family since the 1740s. An intriguing funerary monument of the fourth century BC, it depicts two pairs of individuals engaged in separate acts of dexiosis, with a fifth person represented in the background. We tentatively raise the possibility that it belonged to a wealthy family associated with the guardianship of the orator Demosthenes and his property. We discuss the possible function of the monument in terms of projecting claims about status. Little is known about the stone’s history before the early twentieth century; accordingly, we explore the different routes through which the inscription might have come into the possession of the Stewart family.