An
ancient statue made as an offering to Osiris (the Egyptian god of death) that
is currently housed at the Manchester Museum in England has suddenly started
spinning inside its closed display case — and no one seems to know why.
A
time-lapse video released by the museum shows the 4000-year-old relic of
Neb-Senu slowly turning around inside its case without any apparent assistance
from the outside world.
The
statue was found in an Egyptian mummy (a tomb) about 80 years ago, and has been
kept encased at the museum ever since.
Its
current caretaker, Campbell Price, was the first one to notice the strange
phenomenon, and says he first realized something was off when he found the
statue askew, reset it, and then found it askew again the following day.
“In
Ancient Egypt they believed that if the mummy is destroyed then the statuette
can act as an alternative vessel for the spirit,” Price, and Egyptologist by
trade, told the Manchester Evening News. “Maybe that is what is causing the
movement.”
Other
experts, however, remain skeptical.
“Physicist
Brian Cox thinks it’s ‘differential friction,’” Price told The Daily Mail,
referring to the process by which two surfaces — in this case the statue’s
stone and the glass shelf, “cause a subtle vibration which is making the
statuette turn.” Cox believes foot traffic or vibrations from the street
outside are causing the mysterious movement, but Price refutes that theory. “It
has been on those surfaces since we have had it and it has never moved before,”
he said.
It
will be recalled that over a century ago the British invaded Africa and, in the
process of their colonization, carted away many beautiful and treasured artifacts
in Africa including Benin and Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
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