The lid of an 2,300-year-old Ancient Egyptian sarcophagus belonging to a dead Bradwell-on-sea game hunter was sold today (September 13) by a Cambridge auction house.
The Egyptian sarcophagus fetched £12,000 at the auction and was found 'propped up against wall' in the home of late game hunter and journalist Tiger Sarll who had passed away aged 94 in 1977.
In early August during a routine house clearance at the Tiger's former home in Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, Stephen Drake of Willingham Auctions found the coffin lid when he was checking the contents of the property.
Cambridge auctioneer Mr Drake described the moment he laid eyes on the find as being like a scene out of Indiana Jones.
"It was bit like going in a tomb and right in front of me is this mummy. No it is not mummy, it is a coffin top. It was a bit like Indiana Jones," Drake said.
Sarll, a game hunter and journalist, is believed to have shipped the lid from Egypt to England before he died in 1977.
The coffin lid dates back to 700 BC, placing it in the Egyptian 25th dynasty, when Pharoah Shebitku was on the throne.
