Maqdala collection

The British Museum cares for more than 90 objects from the northern Ethiopian site of Maqdala (modern Amba Mariam), where in the 1850s and 1860s, Emperor Tewodros II (reigned 1855–1868) built a fortress, library and treasury.

The collection includes important liturgical objects such as processional crosses, chalices and umbrella tops, many finely made in silver, silver-gilt and gold, as well as weapons, silk textiles, and jewellery. There are also eleven inscribed tabots (consecrated altar tablets) made in wood and stone understood in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to represent the Ark of the Covenant. Many of the works from Maqdala are regarded by the Church as highly sacred objects; others represent some of the great artistic traditions of Ethiopia.

Where are they from?

Maqdala was an almost impenetrable mountain-top fortress in northern Ethiopia which became the seat of power for Emperor Tewodros II. Within its precincts, Tewodros started to establish a library and treasury, as well as dedicating a new church.

Tewodros' ambition was to unify, reform and modernise his country and he tried to achieve this partly through military campaigns. During these conquests, he seized books, holy relics and manuscripts from churches throughout Ethiopia, and particularly from Gondar, with the intention of establishing Maqdala as a seat of learning and research.

Consequently, the treasury at Maqdala housed many of the finest examples of silk textiles, gold and silver regalia and jewellery, weapons, liturgical vessels, processional crosses and tabots.

In the 1860s, relations between Britain and Emperor Tewodros II became strained and then deteriorated. Throughout the first half of the 1800s Britain sought to influence political developments in Ethiopia for wider regional strategic aims, including in the Red Sea. In 1862 Tewodros wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, as a fellow Christian monarch, asking for British assistance in military training to help support his campaigns to retain control of his territories, and against other regional powers. The Foreign Office in London failed to pass the letter to the Queen. The Emperor was insulted and enraged that British authorities ignored this request. Tewodros subsequently imprisoned the British consul and took other European hostages, accusing them of plotting against him. Tewodros' refusal to release the prisoners and the coverage of this within the British press generated a public outcry in Britain. This in turn led to a government decision to take large-scale military action, focused on Maqdala.

In 1867, a military force of 13,000 British and Indian soldiers and 26,000 camp followers led by Sir Robert Napier was launched through the India Office with the stated aim of freeing the hostages and punishing Tewodros. Generally known in Britian as the Abyssinian Campaign, this was the first in a series of major military actions in Africa in the 1800s and one of the most expensive British campaigns of all time. Although the purpose was never to annex territory, this massive military assault resulted in the destruction of Maqdala's fortress and the deaths of hundreds of Tewodros' army and wounding of thousands more, with only limited British casualties. The most significant battles took place at Aroge on 10 April 1868 and at Maqdala on 13 April 1868. During the invasion of Maqdala, Tewodros died by suicide rather than be taken prisoner, using a pistol gifted to him by Queen Victoria. This last defiant act has immortalised him as a national hero for many Ethiopians. Contemporary written accounts describe widespread looting of the fortress and church by soldiers and the released hostages. The fortress was destroyed by military order on 17 April 1868. Many of the pillaged objects were subsequently re-assembled and auctioned by an Army committee at the nearby Delanta Plain on 20–21 April 1868 as a means of generating 'prize money' for the troops. After destroying the fortress, the expeditionary force soon left Maqdala and shortly afterwards departed Ethiopia. 

Accompanying the expedition in an official capacity as 'archaeologist' was Richard Rivington Holmes, an Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum. This is the only example of the Museum sending a staff member on a military campaign in Africa. The aim of embedding Holmes was to remove inscriptions made in stone, manuscripts and other historical material for the collection. The Museum had the support of the Government and were given a grant of £1,000 from the Treasury to cover all costs. They also had significant support from the India Office and military command, who agreed to Holmes accompanying the invasion and helped the Museum acquire manuscripts (now in the British Library). 

Holmes was one of the principal buyers at the auction of loot on the Delanta Plain following the invasion of Maqdala. He purchased thirteen objects, including some of the most richly decorated processional crosses, a communion cup dedicated by Tewodros and a rare example of a woven silk hanging made for the inner sanctum of a church. Holmes also participated in the looting of Maqdala, taking further objects including a necklace that reportedly belonged to the Empress Tiruwork Wube. During the looting of the fortress, he also purchased from a soldier a gold crown and chalice made in Gondar in the 1700s (now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London). Although it was not disclosed to the Museum, Holmes took a sacred icon, known as the Kwer'ata Re'esu, from Tewodros' chambers for his own private collection. This was sold at auction in London and is now in a private collection in Portugal.

Other objects from Maqdala entered the British Museum collections through the Secretary of State for India, Sir Stafford Northcote, in 1868. These include a further group of regalia, liturgical objects and tabots that had been purchased by Robert Napier at Maqdala. The Secretary of State for India gave the Museum fragments from a church that was excavated at Adulis (on the coast of Eritrea) near the end of the Campaign and over 300 manuscripts from Maqdala (the latter are now in  the British Library). 

Further items have come to the Museum from the collection of Captain Speedy, a British explorer initially appointed by Tewodros to train his army. He subsequently fell out with the Emperor and eventually participated in the military campaign against him. Some of the objects from his collection may have been taken from Maqdala or acquired during the Campaign. However, associated documentation does not record precise provenance details and at least some are known to have been acquired on prior and subsequent visits to Ethiopia. Captain Speedy became the guardian of Emperor Tewodros' son, Prince Alemayehu, following the death of Tewodros and the Prince's mother, Queen Tiruwork Wube (who died soon after the Maqdala attack of a lung condition). The Prince was taken to Britain but died of pleurisy at the age of 18. The Museum's collections include his necklace. Other objects from Maqdala were donated to the Museum in the 1900s, often through individuals whose family members were present in 1868.

While celebrated in Britain by many at the time, the destruction and pillaging of Maqdala also had fierce critics. Most notably, the British Prime Minister William Gladstone criticised the plundering of Maqdala and in particular the looting of Church property as a reprehensible and lamentable episode.

Over the last five years the British Museum has received a number of visits and delegations representing Ethiopia, including a visit from the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Hirut Kassaw in March 2019. Several discussions with the Museum concerning items taken at Maqdala have been held, including requests for the return of sacred objects.

Status of discussions

The Museum remains open to continuing dialogue around the tabots and the wider Maqdala collections.  

The Museum's sustained long-term ambition relating to the tabots is to lend them to an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Great Britain where they can be cared for by the clergy within their traditions.

The Museum has previously worked in partnership with the National Museum in Addis Ababa and with the Institute of Ethiopian Studies on skills-sharing and knowledge transfer initiatives. Colleagues from the National Museum have participated in the International Training Programme (ITP) at the British Museum.

The British Museum also has a longstanding and cordial relationship with senior members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, both in Ethiopia and in London.

Discussions with Ethiopian partners concerning the Maqdala collections are continuing and the Museum is actively invested in these. Alongside these discussions, the Museum is also committed to thorough and open investigation of Maqdala collection histories, and engagement with wider contemporary dialogues within which these collections are positioned. This includes fully acknowledging and understanding the military collection history which directly led to the Museum's Maqdala collections.

In line with earlier agreements with the Church, and in light of their sacred nature, the tabots from Maqdala are not on public display. They are housed in a location specially set aside for the purpose, created and maintained in close consultation with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. 

The Museum is committed to working collaboratively with professional colleagues, members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, academics and communities associated with Ethiopia more widely to share knowledge, extend understanding and explore new perspectives on the collections from Maqdala.

The Ethiopian objects on display at the Museum emphasise and help communicate the diverse religious traditions of Ethiopia, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism as well as other faiths.

Where else can they be seen?

In the UK, there are significant collections of painted manuscripts from Maqdala held by a range of institutions, including the British Library, London, UK. Other important collections of manuscripts and books from Maqdala are held at The John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK; Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK; Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK and The Royal Library, London, UK.

Other objects from Maqdala are held in various institutions in London including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Army Museum. 

Most material from Maqdala is held in the UK, but there is a significant object collection in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada and some privately returned objects from Maqdala are on display at the National Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.