- DUBLIN (Reuters) - Workmen
excavating a site in Dublin have dug up a mysterious stone and metal box
archaeologists believe is a "time capsule" buried 200 years
ago.
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- The sealed container, which experts hope may be opened
next week, was discovered at a central Dublin site where a monument to
English naval hero Horatio Nelson once stood.
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- Pat Wallace, director of Ireland's national museum, said
the box -- measuring around two-and-a-half feet (75 cm) by one-and-a-half
feet (45cm) -- probably contained artefacts of the era such as coins and
newspapers.
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- "It's very exciting to find something that was
historically
tucked away," he told Reuters. "The question is, though, will
the contents have survived?"
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- Museum archaeologists were currently cleaning the outside
of the box in order to read an inscription on the casing, and would take
X-rays before attempting to open it, he said.
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- The container was found as work began on the belated
erection of a 120-metre (394 feet) stainless steel spike -- intended to
mark the new millennium but delayed after concerns about its environmental
impact.
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- The original monument on the site, Nelson's Pillar, was
erected in 1808 but blown up by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in
1966.
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- Wallace said the box was probably intended to remain
buried for 1,000 years.
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- "The idea has always been there, with historical
buildings, to put something away for the future, but how could these people
have known the statue would be blown up?"
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