The turn of the mummy: God of death statue starts SPINNING on its own in Manchester museum… but is this a sign that there really is a curse of the Pharaohs?
An ancient statue in a British museum has been caught on camera turning in its locked display case, and it’s unnerving many people. According to an article in the “Manchester Evening News,”
What’s going on? Because the piece is in a museum display about ancient Egypt, some have suggested a curse or ghost. It is certainly mysterious: If the video is to be believed — and there’s little reason to doubt it — then the statue is indeed moving independently inside a closed case, untouched by human hands.
Egyptologist Campbell Price studies an ancient Egyptian statuette at the Manchester Museum, which appears to be moving on its own
Others, including TV physicist Professor Brian Cox, have a more down-to-earth explanation for its movement.
Whatever the solution, the puzzle certainly won’t dent visitor numbers at its present home, Manchester Museum.
The statuette’s slow about-turn has been captured on film by a time-lapse camera, and curator Campbell Price, 29, says he believes there may be a spiritual explanation.
‘I noticed one day that it had turned around,’ he said. ‘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.
‘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.’
The statue, made by one Neb-Senu in about 1800BC, was donated to the museum in 1933, and had been reassuringly immobile for most of that time.
However Mr Price and his colleagues are now used to finding it facing the rear of its case – perhaps significantly, displaying a prayer on the back requesting ‘bread, beer, oxen and fowl’.
Their video has recorded it rotating to its left over the course of three days until facing backwards.
Even more mysteriously, it appears to spin only during daylight hours, and does not turn beyond 180 degrees. Some, including Professor Cox, have suggested that vibrations caused by the footsteps of passing visitors makes the statuette turn on its glass shelf.
Mr Price said: ‘Brian thinks it’s “differential friction” where two surfaces, the 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 a round in a perfect circle? It would be great if someone could solve the mystery.’