In the plinth of a shattered statue, in the shadow of ChristChurch Cathedral in New Zealand, a treasure was found.
As New Zealanders observed two minutes' silence in memory of those killed in last week's Christchurch earthquake, rescue workers made a remarkable discovery among the rubble: two time capsules from up to 144 years ago.
A metal cylinder and a bottle containing rolled-up parchment were found beneath the plinth of a statue of Christchurch's Irish founder, John Robert Godley, which toppled during the magnitude 6.3 quake.
The city's Mayor, Bob Parker, said the parchment appeared to bear a message expressing the vision of Godley and his contemporaries for the city....
The time capsules – believed to have been buried either in 1867, when the statue was put up, or in 1933, when it was returned to its original site after being removed in 1918 – are being examined before being opened in a humidity-controlled environment. Two words – "by" and "erected" – are visible on the document inside the partly smashed bottle.
