The Scotsman 06 December 2001

A SACRED Ethiopian artefact has been discovered in a church cupboard in Edinburgh - 130 years after it was seized by British soldiers in a bloody battle.

The wooden tablet, or Tabot, is the most holy part of an Ethiopian church and represents the Ark of the Covenant, which the Israelites used to carry the Ten Commandments as they travelled to the Promised Land. It was taken during the battle of Magdala in 1868 but was only discovered in St John’s Episcopal Church, in Edinburgh, earlier this year.

The Rev John McLuckie came across the block in a battered leather box. He has lived in Ethiopia and recognised the carved piece of wood, which is traditionally kept wrapped in clothes at the centre of the country’s Orthodox churches.

The church now plans to hand the artefact back to the Ethiopians during a ceremony in the capital next month.

The Tabot - which is so sacred it is forbidden to photograph it - is a 17cm square block carved with a geometric African inscription, dedicating it to the Ethiopian saint Gebremenfes Qidus as well as to Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

It was seized when an expeditionary force was sent to Ethiopia in 1868, after the Emperor Tewodros triggered a diplomatic storm by imprisoning a number of British citizens.