The Guardian 6 December 2001

In Hollywood movies, the ark of the covenant is usually uncovered by a whip-wielding hero abseiling into a cave, but in Edinburgh they do things rather differently. The Rev John McLuckie has found it while clearing out a cupboard.

The Scottish Episcopal church vicar was searching a dusty recess at the church of St John the Evangelist, a notable landmark in the city's Princes Street, when he found the Ethiopian ark - or a sacred representation of it, at least - in a Victorian leather box at the back of the cupboard.

The artefact, known as a tabot, is a blackened flat piece of wood, 17cm by 18cm, covered with a carved inscription and a pattern. Similar artefacts have been traditionally kept as sacred centrepieces in Ethiopian Orthodox churches, although they are always wrapped in cloth and are seen only by priests.

Ethiopian Christians believe that they still possess the original ark itself, which is traditionally supposed to have held the ten commandments.

The rediscovered tabot was looted by the British army when it captured the fortress of Magdala in 1868, and was later given to the church by a parishioner. It seems to have lain in the cupboard ever since.

The tabot will be handed back to the Ethiopian authorities next month.

Fisseha Adugna, Ethiopia's charge d'affaires in London, said: "We are hugely grateful to St John's for offering to return the tabot to us.

"There is great excitement in Ethiopia. This is a very significant act. We have lost so much of our heritage and this is a first step to having it restored."