Have archaeologists found real 'Robinson Crusoe' camp?
Three hundred years after Alexander Selkirk, the castaway who was the inspiration for the fictional Robinson Crusoe, was marooned on an island off the coast of Chile, archaeologists believe that they have unearthed evidence of his campsite.
Daniel Defoe’s Crusoe spent years on a tropical island, surviving by hunting and foraging, scouring the azure horizon for any sign of a ship to rescue him.
Selkirk, a sailor born in Fife in 1676, was stranded in 1704 on the island of Más a Tierra — now renamed Robinson Crusoe Island — part of the Juan Fernández group 470 miles off Chile, after an argument with the master over the seaworthiness of the ship Cinque Ports...
Archaeologists have found evidence of what they believe to be Selkirk’s presence in a part of the island known as Aguas Buenas, uncovering the remnants of a campsite constructed by an early European occupant.
An article published in the journal Post-Medieval Archaeology reports the discovery of a fragment of copper alloy from a pair of navigational dividers, which would have belonged to a ship’s navigator or master. Reports from the 18th century from Selkirk’s rescuer, Captain Woodes Rogers, suggest that Selkirk fulfilled one of these roles.
Read entire article at Times (of London)
Daniel Defoe’s Crusoe spent years on a tropical island, surviving by hunting and foraging, scouring the azure horizon for any sign of a ship to rescue him.
Selkirk, a sailor born in Fife in 1676, was stranded in 1704 on the island of Más a Tierra — now renamed Robinson Crusoe Island — part of the Juan Fernández group 470 miles off Chile, after an argument with the master over the seaworthiness of the ship Cinque Ports...
Archaeologists have found evidence of what they believe to be Selkirk’s presence in a part of the island known as Aguas Buenas, uncovering the remnants of a campsite constructed by an early European occupant.
An article published in the journal Post-Medieval Archaeology reports the discovery of a fragment of copper alloy from a pair of navigational dividers, which would have belonged to a ship’s navigator or master. Reports from the 18th century from Selkirk’s rescuer, Captain Woodes Rogers, suggest that Selkirk fulfilled one of these roles.