World's largest time capsule was sealed 83 years ago and won't be opened for another 6,000 years
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Bettmann/Getty/Wikimedia Commons
Whatever civilizations are living on Earth in 6,000 years will be able to get a taste of the past thanks to the world's largest time capsule which was sealed almost 100 years ago.
Films, books and official documents are all capable of capturing a moment in time, but the ominously-named 'Crypt of Civilization' capsule is designed to be the go-to place for future humans to find out about what life looked like back in the day.
By 'the day', I mean the 1930s, when researcher Dr Thornwell Jacobs was studying Ancient Egypt and was shocked to realise how little accurate information was available in the present day.
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Jacobs realised almost all of our knowledge about Ancient Egypt came from the pyramids and a few inscribed tablets found in ancient Assyria, so in a bid to provide future historians with a little more insight, he set about creating the first modern-day time capsule.
The capsule is located in a defunct swimming pool at Oglethorpe University in Georgia, where Jacobs was president at the time. The university describes it as the 'oldest millennial time capsule in conception and the largest in the world'.
It contains artifacts from 1930s life and knowledge of the last 6,000 years - though it's worth noting that Jacobs was biased when it came to choosing the objects, so they might not necessarily capture the full picture of 1930s America.
The capsule includes everything from a model of Donald Duck and recordings of popular clarinetist Artie Shaw, to movies showing photographed events from 1898 onwards and 100 books on microfilm, as well as a 'book of records' listing which describes all the objects and their use.
To help with any potential language barriers, Jacobs also included pictures of each object and a phonograph which would speak the name of it aloud in English.
Jacobs decided that the capsule should be opened on until May 28, 8113.
At the time, Jacobs explained that he chose that date because 6,177 years had elapsed since the creation of the Egyptian calendar, so he wanted the future researcher to be able to understand life halfway between their present day and the Ancient Egyptians.
Paul Hudson, co-founder of Oglethorpe University’s International Time Capsule Society, has described the crypt as 'pulsating with life'.
"It's a living, breathing thing. It's older than I am and it's bigger than all of us," he said. "Can you imagine a cultural anthropologist in the year 8113 opening the crypt? It would be like a treasure trove. Even things like dental floss would be fascinating."
The capsule was officially sealed on 28 May, 1940.