By Amanda Williams
PUBLISHED: 03:10 EST, 23 June 2013 | UPDATED: 10:07 EST,
23 June 2013
It sounds like the something from the script of a
Hollywood action adventure.
But the 'mystery of the moving mummy' - which has seen an
Egyptian statue mysteriously start to spin round in a
display case - has spooked museum bosses.
The 10-inch tall relic, an offering to the Egyptian God
Osiris, was found in a mummy's tomb and has been at the
Manchester Museum for 80 years.
But in recent weeks, curators have been left scratching
their heads after they kept finding it facing the wrong way.
They now believe there could be a 'spiritual explanation'
for the turning statue.
Egyptologist Campbell Price studies an ancient Egyptian
statuette at the Manchester Museum, which appears to be
moving on its own.
It is believed that there is a curse of the pharaohs
which strikes anyone who dares to take relics from a pyramid
tomb.
Experts decided to monitor the room on time-lapse video
and were astonished to see it clearly show the statuette
spinning 180 degrees - with nobody going near it.
The statue of a man named Neb-Senu is seen to remain
still at night but slowly rotate round during the day.
Now scientists are trying to explain the phenomenon, with
TV physicist Brian Cox among the experts being
consulted.
The 10-inch tall relic, which dates back to 1800 BC, has
been at the museum for 80 years but curators say it has
recently starting rotating 180 degrees during the day.
Scientists who explored the Egyptian tombs in the 1920s
were popularly believed to be struck by a 'curse of the
Pharaohs'.
Now Campbell Price, a curator at the museum on Oxford
Road, said he believes there may be a spiritual explanation
to the spinning statue.
Egyptologist Mr Price, 29, said: 'I noticed one day that
it had turned around.
'I thought it was strange because it is in a case and I
am the only one who has a key.
'I put it back but then the next day it had moved
again.
Experts
decided to monitor the room on time-lapse video and were
astonished to see it clearly show the statuette spinning
180 degrees - with nobody going near it
In this time lapsed video, as the museum closes for the
evening, the statue can be seen in a clearly different
position
By midday the next day it has turned almost a quarter
of a circle to be facing to the left
The following morning the statue has moved again, and is
facing even further away from its original position
By the end of the day the statue has turned almost 180
degrees and is now facing away from visitors to the museum
'We set up a time-lapse video and, although the naked
eye can't see it, you can clearly see it rotate on the
film.
'The statuette is something that used to go in the tomb
along with the mummy.
'Mourners would lay offerings at its feet. The
hieroglyphics on the back ask for 'bread, beer and beef'.
'In Ancient Egypt they believed that if the mummy is
destroyed then the statuette can act as an alternative
vessel for the spirit.
'Maybe that is what is causing the movement.'
Other experts have a more rational explanation -
suggesting that the vibrations caused by the footsteps of
passing visitors makes the statuette turn.
That's the theory favoured by Professor Cox - but
Campbell said he was not convinced.
'Brian thinks it's differential friction,' he said.
'Where two surfaces, the serpentine stone of the
statuette and glass shelf it is on, cause a subtle vibration
which is making the statuette turn.
But it has been on those surfaces since we have had it
and it has never moved before. And why would it go around in
a perfect circle?'
Campbell is urging members of the public to come along
and take a look for themselves.
'It would be great if someone could solve the mystery,'
he added.
Pix and video at link: