A team found money, ammunition, documents and other artifacts inside. Missing for a historical photo of the general that it was hoped to find
A time capsule was found in Richmond, Virginia in the remains of a pedestal that once supported a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Inside were books, money, ammunition, documents, and other artifacts. The box had been hidden in a cornerstone of the foundations of the massive Richmond Monument since 1887. On Tuesday, a team of experts opened the box and documented its contents.
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The team of experts was able to immediately identify many of the objects extracted from the box, even if some materials were deformed by the water and required more work. Experts were on hand to evaluate the artifacts. They were more impregnated than we’d hoped, but they weren’t that bad, said Kate Ridgway, chief superintendent of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
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The time capsule had been found the day before, buried and sitting in the water, by the workers who were finishing the removal of the pedestal of the Lee statue. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam had ordered the removal of the huge equestrian statue of Lee in 2020, while the protest movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd by the police was underway. The statue. however, it was not removed until September.
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In early December, Northam ordered the pedestal to be removed as well, and the teams working on the project began looking for the artifact again. Ridgway said the measurements and copper material of the box opened Tuesday matched historical accounts. As the contents inside were unpacked, they largely lined up with the items listed in a newspaper article of the time but was missing an important photo of Lincoln that they were hoping to find.
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Along with several water-soaked books, pamphlets and newspapers, the box contained an envelope of Confederate money, which archaeologists carefully separated, and two carved artifacts, a Masonic symbol and a Confederate flag. and Minie balls, a type of bullet used in the Civil War. A bomb squad had checked the capsule on Monday, partly to make sure there was no live ammunition inside.
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Lee’s Monument was part of a collection of Confederate statues that dotted historic Monument Avenue in Richmond, which was the Confederate’s capital for most of the Civil War. The other Confederate statues, which were owned by the city, were removed last year.
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December 29, 2021 (change December 29, 2021 | 13:22)
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