4,000-year old Egyptian statue in UK museum rotates by itself
27 Jun 2013
An ancient Egyptian statue has left staff at Manchester Museum flummoxed after it started slowly rotating inside its glass case; and has now turned a full 180 degrees from its original position.
The (25cm) high stone statuette dates back to 1,800 BC and was donated to the museum by a private collector in 1933.
It now shows its back to visitors, where there is an inscription asking for sacrifices of beer, bread and animals in what was a standard Egyptian prayer for the dead.
The phenomenon was only noted after the statue was moved to another display area a few months ago.
Egyptology curator Annie Garnett said various theories have been advanced ranging from vibration caused by nearby traffic to visitor footfall.
"Professor Brian Cox thinks it is due the differential friction between type of stone and the glass shelf it is on," she said.
No other figure in the display had moved -- nor had any other in the museum.
Statuette no. 9325 doesn't appear to go by any proper name. It's a prefabricated figure - an off-the-shelf product - that was placed into a small tomb around 1800 BC
In February, curator Campbell Price noticed that the statue was turning by a small degree every day.
In April, museum officials installed a time-lapse camera that snapped an image of the statue every minute of every day for a week. When they ran the images in fast motion, they came across a surprising revelation: the statue only moved during the day, when visitors were walking past.
The museum has provisionally concluded that it is caused by vibrations caused by foot traffic in room. But mysteries remain.
"What is very strange is that the statue has spun in a perfect circle," Price said. "It hasn't wobbled off in any particular direction."
A museum guide has suggested saying a prayer for the statue.
But Price is unmoved by theories of occult forces or 'the Pharaoh's curse'. "Most Egyptologists are not superstitious people," he said.
No one has bought the statue a beer.