Opinion: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and digits to nothing

NPR's Scott Simon has thoughts about a 19th century time capsule opened at West Point this week, and what lay within.

A West Point archeologist and museum curator take part in the opening of a lead box placed in the base of a monument by cadets almost two centuries ago.A West Point archeologist and museum curator take part in the opening of a lead box placed in the base of a monument by cadets almost two centuries ago.At the U.S. Military Academy this week an archaeologist sliced, with surgical care, the lid off a foot-long, lead cube.

But as the Army Times had to report,"it appears as if the container's contents — and its generational ties — are merely dust in the wind." The West Point archaeologist who sifted through the silt turned up six silver coins and a medal celebrating the completion of the Erie Canal. But no confidential diaries, papers, or maps; no commemorative cannonballs, or brass Army cadet buttons. Just silt, and a few silty old coins.And yet, it can't be easy to seal anything into a lead box underneath a statue.

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