Anthropologists Larry Conyers and Samuel Connell used a high-tech radar device to solve a 133-year-old mystery in a matter of minutes yesterday morning.

"It never happens like this. We found it within the first 10 minutes we were here. And that's very surprising," Conyers, a professor in the anthropology department of the University of Denver, told the Associated Press.

The two scientists were on the hunt for a time capsule buried in 1872 by King Kamehameha V that officials have long known lies somewhere within the concrete walls of Ali'iolani Hale, otherwise known as the state Supreme Court building.

But the location of the cornerstone containing coins, stamps, photos of the royal family, the kingdom's constitution and copies of 11 newspapers, among other artifacts, remained unknown.

Conyers and Connell, from the Hawai'i-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, conducted the search to coincide with the king's 175th birthday. Kamehameha V, who was a Mason, assisted in the laying of the cornerstone on Feb. 19, 1872.

"We know the contents," said Matt Mattice, executive director of the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, which is in the building. "We have a list of everything. We've just never known where it was located."

Mattice said the contents seem to stress the fact that Hawai'i had become a modern nation — that it had a free press, a constitution and numerous societies.

"It's like they were saying we're right up there with the rest of you," he said.

Historians only knew the foundation was laid and the cornerstone was placed above the foundation. Which stone, in which of the building's numerous corners, no one could say.

But Conyers and Connell had a hunch the cornerstone in question would be in a northeast, or mauka/diamondhead portion of the structure — which is where they concentrated their search.

Sure enough, after an appropriate amount of equipment tweaking, the radar screen blipped up an electronic version of a hollowed-out stone with the appropriate items inside.

Mattice said the stone won't be opened, since they know what's in it.

But he said there would be a discussion about marking it with a plaque to explain its importance.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.