Box on O'Connell St,Found in centre of pillar's foundations
Historians at the National Museum have discovered a document which may explain the origins of a box that was found by archaeologists excavating the site of Nelson's pillar.
They say the document refers to the burial of a box with a brass plate in the foundations of the pillar on O'Connell St. The brass plate listed the committee of city merchants who financed the pillar. They included the Lord Mayor of the time and Arthur Guinness.
It will be next week or even later before the box is opened. It had been thought that the box would be opened today. What was believed to be a box, measuring about two foot by sixteen inches, is embedded in a block of granite.
Staff at the National Museum laboratory at Collins Barracks have removed a stone lid and have discovered inscriptions in the brass underneath. They appear to be names.
The words Valentine and Lindsey are among them. The box was X-rayed today and mortar was removed to examine the inscriptions.
Archaeologists were half expecting to find a "time capsule" because there were references to one in newspaper articles in the 1960s when the Pillar was blown up. Staff at the museum have still to decide how to open the box.
