Is this an unexplained mystery or just a bid for publicity?
Either way, it’s a spooky turn of events.
Footage has been released of a 10-inch-tall statue seeming to spin around in circles completely by itself at Manchester Museum in the United Kingdom. It happens both in the dead of night and while visitors are in plain view, but the movement isn’t captured by the naked eye.
Instead, time-lapse footage enables viewers to see the striking rotation of the figurine, named Neb-Senu, which dates back to 1800 B.C.
Campbell Price, 29, an Egyptologist, told the Manchester Evening News: “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.”
One theory focuses on the fact that this figurine was created to accompany a mummy in its burial and protect the spirit in the afterlife. An inscription on Neb-Senu’s back roughly translates to “bread, beer and beef” — listing items that mourners were expected to lay at its feet.
A myth about ancient Egyptian burial is that if a mummy is disturbed or destroyed, the spirit of the corpse may move instead to one of the figurines buried alongside it. Therefore, Price speculated, this item may now encapsulate the dead man’s restless soul.
Another theory from a museum manager speculates that perhaps vibrations from visitors’ footfall on the floor create a friction that causes the figurine to move; however, this is unpopular since no other items in the case move, and because the rotation occurs when there is no one around.
For now, this is one mystery that remains under wraps.
