Abyssinian roll of parchment

In the spring of 1868, British troops marched across the Kingdom of Abyssinia towards Maqdala, a village with a mountain fortress in what is now Ethiopia. The impending battle was prompted by the imprisonment of the British consul to Abyssinia, along with some missionaries and a diplomatic messenger, in retaliation for Queen Victoria not responding to the Emperor’s requests for support.

At some point during the lead up to the conflict, one of the Ethiopian soldiers probably tucked this roll of parchment into one of his pockets, or perhaps into a saddlebag on his horse. The inscription is intended to ward off disease, to protect the health of whoever carries it, but it is unfortunately impossible to know whether its original owner achieved this goal. The Abyssinian side suffered a swift and brutal defeat at the hands of the more advanced British firepower, and while we have records of those who fought for England, no such thing exists to memorialize the identities of the Abyssinian troops.

The existence of this parchment in the Pitt Rivers Museum, however, means we can know with some certainty that it was picked up by one of the British soldiers, either plucked from a fallen body or off the ground after it was dropped, and that it subsequently made its way into the pool of loot that was auctioned off several days after the fortress was destroyed. This parchment reminds us that exploring the legacy of this history means not only facing the wrongful taking of cultural objects, but also acknowledging the loss of life that accompanied these violent moments.

(Sabrina Illiano, DPhil candidate in Anthropology, Oxford)