4,000 Year Old Egyptian Statue Filmed Mysteriously Rotating in its Locked Enclosure [VIDEO]

A 4,000-year-old Egyptian statuette on display at a British museum has been observed mysteriously rotating within its glass enclosure, mystifying curators and prompting natural and supernatural speculations as to why the figure is moving.

Campbell Price, the curator of the Manchester Museum's Egypt section, said that the statue, which has been in the museum's collection since 1933, has recently started to slowly turn in a perfect arc while in its glass enclosure.

"I noticed one day that it had turned around," Price said, according to the Daily Mail. "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."

Museum staff set up a video camera to see if there could be any documented explanation for the statue's mysterious daily about-face. While the statue does not appear to move when looking at it in real time, much like the hour hand of a clock, the statue's movement is clear as day when the tape is played in time-lapse.

The statuette of a man called Neb-Senu is said to be an offering to Orisis, Egyptian god of the dead. Price said the statuette is like others that were placed in the tomb along with a mummy.

"Mourners would lay offerings at its feet. The hieroglyphics on the back ask for 'bread, beer and beef'," Price said, according to a reporty by First Post. 

BBC's report on the story said the phenomenon was only noticed after the statuette was moved from another display area a few months ago.

Several explanations for the mysterious movement are circulating, including vibrations caused by nearby traffic or by visitor footfall.

Physicist Brian Cox, who is known for his regular appearances on British television, suggests that vibrations caused by footsteps from passing visitors care causing the statuette to move.

"Brian thinks it's differential friction," Price said of the physicist, explaining the mysterious movement. "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," Price said. "And why would it go around in a perfect circle?"

"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," Price said.

Price urged members of the public to come to the museum and take a look with their own eyes.

"It would be great if someone could solve the mystery," he said.