Something is afoot at the Manchester Museum in England.
An Egyptian statue located in the Ancient Worlds gallery has been slowly turning in circles, according to CBS News.
To any museumgoer or passerby, the statue looks stationary. But after museum employees shot a video of Acc. no. 9325, it was revealed that the ancient statue was moving more than 180 degrees in a counter-clockwise semi-circle. As it moved in tiny increments, it never wavered, never wobbled, never fell.
The statue has been on display, stationed in a glass shelf in the museum for more than 75 years, but it only began its curious motion earlier in 2013.
Egyptologist Campbell Price was the first person to notice the statue's covert movements. He noticed in January that the ancient idol-one that offers prayer for the deceased-was facing the back of the display case, he wrote on the museum's blog.
He said the 10-inch statuette, which has "always intrigued" him, had moved yet again when he checked on it the following day.
"I wondered who had changed the object's position without telling me," he wrote on the blog. "A day later [it] had yet another orientation. None of the other objects in the display case had moved. The case was locked. And I have the only key."
Perplexed by the phantom statuette, Price and some of his fellow historians shot a time-lapse video to capture what could have been contributing to its movement.
It seems the statue only budged during the day.
Despite the curious video, museum officials still are not sure what is making the statue shift. Price says there is probably a straightforward explanation.
"Logical attempts to explain the statue's movement center on the subtle vibration caused by outside traffic, causing imperceptible movement," he said. Or, he continued, the statue could be "vulnerable to magnetic forces."
