The Dean of Westminster Abbey in London has decided “in principle” to return a sacred Ethiopian tablet, which was looted over 150 years ago at the height of the British empire.

Known as tabots, the deeply religious objects were made in stone or wood and symbolically represent the Ark of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments. Every Ethiopian church houses a tabot, but they are deemed so holy that only a priest from the country’s Orthodox church can lay eyes on them.

In 1868, hundreds of treasures including tabots were stolen at the battle of Maqdala (formerly Magdala). British troops attacked the forces of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II, plundering the mountain fortress and its treasury before burning it to the ground. Captain George Arbuthnot of the Royal Artillery gave one of the tabots to the abbey shortly thereafter. In 1870, the tabot was embedded and sealed inside an altar in the Henry VII Lady Chapel where it has remained ever since.

The head of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, Abune Paulos (1936-2012), first visited the abbey in 2007 calling for the artefact’s return. After hearing no response for over a decade, the Ethiopian government again called for the restitution of the tabot in 2018 but was denied access.

While discussions are still ongoing, the Dean at Westminster, David Hoyle, has now declared that it is possible to repatriate the sacred object. The abbey clarified in a statement: “the Dean and Chapter has decided in principle that it would be appropriate to return the Ethiopian tabot to the Ethiopian Church. We are currently considering the best way to achieve this, and we are in ongoing discussions with representatives of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. This is a complex matter, and it may take some time.”

Although the final decision lies with the Dean, the restitution process will also involve Buckingham Palace who must be consulted on any changes made at the abbey. Many other tabots were scattered around Europe after 1868. In the last few years, museums across Britain have increasingly chosen to return stolen African objects in their collections, including London’s Horniman Museum which repatriated over looted 70 artefacts from Benin to Nigeria in 2022.