The "spinning" statuette of Neb-senu, Manchester Museum

Manchester Museum stands on Oxford Road, part of the University of Manchester. In its Egypt gallery, inside a locked, alarmed, wall-mounted glass case, stood a statuette of Neb-senu, a Middle Kingdom official. The figure is about 10 inches tall and roughly 3,800 years old. He wears a shoulder-length wig and a knee-length kilt. On his back, a prayer asks for offerings of bread, beer and beef. The statuette came to the museum in 1933, a gift from Annie Barlow, daughter of the Bolton cotton-mill owner James Barlow. It arrived through the Egypt Exploration Society's system for sharing out excavation finds.