Excavation at Aguas Buenas, Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile, of a gunpowder magazine and the supposed campsite of Alexander Selkirk, together with an account of early navigational dividers

Authors: Takahashi, Daisuke; Caldwell, David; Cáceres, Iván; Calderón, Mauricio; Morrison-Low, A.D.; Saavedra, Miguel; Tate, Jim

Source: Post-Medieval Archaeology, Volume 41, Number 2, December 2007 , pp. 270-304(35)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

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Abstract:

Excavations were undertaken of a ruined building at Aguas Buenas, identified as an 18th-century Spanish gunpowder magazine. Evidence was also found for the campsite of an early European occupant of the island. A case is made that this was Alexander Selkirk, a castaway here from 1704 to 1709. Selkirk was the model for Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. A detailed discussion is given of a fragment of copper alloy identified as being from a pair of navigational dividers.

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/174581307X236157

Publication date: 2007-12-01

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