Robinson Crusoe Found.

Yes, the plucky, inventive island castaway Robinson Crusoe was a fictional character. But author Robert Louis Stevenson, writing in the mid-1800s, based him on the very real Alexander Selkirk, who survived for four years after being stranded on a Pacific Island more than a century earlier. And now archaeologists have found his camp:

Science Daily:
An article in the journal Post-Medieval Archaeology presents evidence from an archaeological dig on the island of Aguas Buenas, since renamed Robinson Crusoe Island, which reveals evidence of the campsite of an early European occupant. The most compelling evidence is the discovery of a pair of navigational dividers which could only have belonged to a ship’s master or navigator, as evidence suggests Selkirk must have been. Indeed Selkirk’s rescuer, Captain Woodes Rogers’ account of what he saw on arrival at Aguas Buenas in 1709 lists ‘some practical pieces’ and mathematical instruments amongst the few possessions that Selkirk had taken with him from the ship.

(By the way, did you know Robert Louis Stevenson was the son of a famous engineer? In fact his grandfather designed and built numerous lighthouses in Scotland, and many descendants were also engineers. Robert just like the way a good story fit together better, I guess.)

Tags: archaeology, engineering