Historians on Tuesday cut into a 36-pound copper time capsule containing items over 130 years old and found in the pedestal of a monument to former Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia.

Katherine Ridgway, the state archaeological conservator at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, cut into the metal and began delicately pulling items from the box as the event was livestreamed on Gov. Ralph Northam’s social media pages.

“I think it’s in better shape than we expected,” said Ridgeway, who noted that many of the items were wet but that the copper may have helped prevent further damage.

The box contained relics including what appeared to be Confederate money, 12 copper coins, an edition of Harper’s Weekly from 1865, military memorabilia, multiple books including directories and a Holy Bible, a carved wood flag and Masonic symbol that some believe was allegedly carved from the tree that grew above Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s original grave.

Before the box was opened, it was X-rayed by a local bomb squad. During the big reveal, Ridgway pulled out what she said she believed to be fragment of a shell from the battle of Fredericksburg that helped trigger that precaution.

Historians were let down last week by another time capsule found in the pedestal of the Robert E. Lee statue. The lead box did not contain the expected 60 objects from “Richmond residents, organizations, and businesses” documented in an issue of the Richmond Dispatch from October 1887, which gave historians some clues about what to expect in the box, including a hint about a photo of former President Abraham Lincoln in his casket.

Instead, the box found last week contained what appeared to be an almanac from 1875, a copy of “The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale of the Old Dominion,” a photograph and a coin.

Quickly, local historians like author Dale Brumfield began to believe it wasn’t the time capsule they had learned about.

“I knew right from the beginning that something was amiss,” Brumfield told ABC News in an interview after the first time capsule was opened. “And the more I thought about it, the more I studied my notes, and some of the historical records. I said this this is a different time capsule.”

Brumfield thinks that the books and photos relate to two men who were involved in the construction of the pedestal who wanted their own time capsule. He developed a theory about why it is there: “It’s just an ego trip for the builders of this monument.”

“I believe that those guys were left out of the original time capsule, and they decided that they wanted to commemorate themselves by putting this small lead box up 20 feet up, which is the halfway point in the construction,” Brumfield said.

Brumfield suspected the other time capsule was still in the pedestal. Just a few days later, Northam announced that construction crews had, in fact, discovered it.

“They found it!,” Northam said in a tweet Monday. “This is likely the time capsule everyone was looking for.”

The pedestal containing both capsules stood beneath a bronze statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee on horseback that was removed in September 2021, following nationwide racial justice protests after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.

Virginia is now making plans to create a new time capsule to reflect the present day.

“This monument and its time capsule reflected Virginia in 1890 — and it’s time to remove both, so that our public spaces better reflect who we are as a people in 2021,” Northam said in a September press release. “The past 18 months have seen historic change, from the pandemic to protests for racial justice that led to the removal of these monuments to a lost cause. It is fitting that we replace the old time capsule with a new one that tells that story.”