Following identification, the Edinburgh Tabot is kept out of sight, while its museum record has been updated to ensure no photographs of it are taken or ever published.
The Tabot was donated to the Royal Scottish Museum in June 1936 by Emily Sarah Lucy Fitzroy.
According to Andrew Heavens’ Directory of Maqdala objects, NMS also holds an Ethiopian cross and goblet, three manuscripts and a scroll, plus three armlets/bracelets that might have been collected from Maqdala in 1868.
In 2001, another Tabot was discovered in the back of a cupboard in a Scottish Episcopal church in Edinburgh in 2001. It was returned to Ethiopia just a few months after its discovery.
So far, no request for the repatriation of this newly discovered Tabot has been received either from the Ethiopian government or from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
However, NMS has confirmed that should such a request be made, it will be considered in line with procedures introduced in 2021 for the transfer of objects to claimants outside the United Kingdom.
