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A mysterious discovery has been made inside the wall of a seaside house - the lid of an Egyptian coffin thought to date back 3,000 years.

Auctioneer Stephen Drake was assessing the contents of a property after the death of its owner when he found the cobweb-covered relic.

It was standing upright in the cavity of an outside wall, complete with painted face and faded hieroglyphics.

Who are you? The lid (pictured) was discovered standing upright inside the cavity of an outside wall, complete with painted face and faded hieroglyphics. How it came to be inside the house remains a mystery

Mr Drake consulted historians at Cambridge University who said the six-foot-long sarcophagus cover appeared to date from 700BC.

But how it came to reside inside the modest address which was being renovated in Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex remains a mystery.

Mr Drake, 55, said: 'It really was quite bizarre. I'd been asked to look at the house by relatives of the previous owner, who'd died.

Mr Drake (pictured) said: 'When I stuck my head through I was surprised to see the coffin lid leaning up against a wall in the corner, covered in dust and cobwebs... It was just like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie'

'When I got there the renovation work was fully under way, and a large hole had been smashed in one of the outside walls.

The lid is due to go to auction on September 13 with a current estimate of £1,000 to £2,000

'When I stuck my head through and looked inside, I was surprised to see the coffin lid leaning up against a wall in the corner, covered in dust and cobwebs.

'There was a painted face on it and some hieroglyphics. 

'It was just like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie.'

Mr Drake said the new owners of the house had no idea what the coffin lid was, but imagined it had been part of a collection of ancient items.

He added: 'I believe the previous owner may have collected old artefacts. There were other very old items in the house.'

If the coffin lid is indeed from 700 BC, that places it within the 25th dynasty in Egypt, when Pharoah Shebitku was on the throne.

Shebitku, also known as Shabatka, was the third king of the 25th dynasty and ruled from 707 BC to 690 BC.

He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka. and a son of Piye, the founder of this dynasty. 

Shebitku's throne name was Djedkare, meaning 'Enduring is the Soul'.

There is no sign of the mummy or the rest of the coffin and no information about how it came to England.

The lid is due to go under the hammer on September 13 with a current estimate of £1,000 to £2,000.

The history of mummification has recently been called into question after a study revealed that Egyptians were mummifying their dead 1,500 years earlier than previously thought.

Traces of complex embalming agents were found in linen used to wrap bodies that were placed in tombs in one of the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries.

The formula used to treat the cloth predates the earliest scientific evidence of embalming in the area of northern Egypt by more than a millennium. 

Experts identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum, a natural petroleum source and a plant oil or animal fat in the funerary wrappings in unopened tombs at Mostagedda, in the region of Upper Egypt.

The embalming agents that were found make up a similar recipe to those used at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification around 3,000 years later.

The textile sample is held in the British museum and was collected in the 1930s, according to the study published in Plos One.

Academics say that the 11-year study, which also involved Macquarie University in Australia, rewrites our understanding of the ancient civilisation.

Traditional theories on ancient Egyptian mummification suggest that in prehistory - the Late Neolithic and Predynastic periods between around 4,500 and 3,100 BC - bodies dried naturally through the action of the hot, dry desert sand.

If the coffin lid is indeed from 700 BC, that places it within the Egyptian 25th dynasty, when Pharoah Shebitku (sculpture pictured) was on the throne. Shebitku, also known as Shabatka, was the third king of the 25th dynasty and ruled from 707 BC to 690 BC.