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Last minute discovery


Dairies 2010 [chronological order]

Olivier le chef de station nous donne un sérieux coup de main  Vue aérienne du Bâtiment n°4 renseigné L'ensemble du secteur étudié dégagé  

The study of building No. 4 is a real treasure hunt, some of its walls are perfectly preserved, but it has two openings which are unable to determine whether this is a real door or sections of walls collapsed. To add to the confusion, a barrel filled with concrete was put in place during construction of the weather station, thus serving to anchor a cable supporting a mast.

Around the barrel, a second wall appears without us knowing and we wonder if it dates back to the shipwrecked or the installation of the weather station.

We decided initially to remove a portion of the wall, and we discover that the original wall, in good condition, extends the walls already unearthed, proving that it also dates from the eighteenth century.

The original building has been modified by our Malagasy, but for some reason we do not know yet.

We decide to go more to the rear of the barrel of concrete history to see what is there.
We remove it and we discover rather quickly, after clearing a few stones, an entry in good condition with its flat stone threshold in place, although filled with blocks of coral. Here we are now with with three openings: a door that corresponds to an initial state of the building and two others who could well have been opened after closing the main entrance.

We do not realize everything well yet, but here are our buildings coming to life and with them, our castaways who build and modify them, another proof, if necessary, taking control of their destiny.

The release of the entries gives us the opportunity to uncover three objects. 

The most important is a lighter: a curved piece of metal that went around the fingers, which permits to strike the flint. We had already found another, with a fragment of flint still stuck in the iron oxide in the Building No. 5.

Here’s which makes us take a big step forward in understanding the control of fire by the abandoned Malagasy.

Another object, a thick copper, like a knife with a blade and elongated triangular handle obtained by folding the sheet of copper. It is certainly a tool but its use does not seem clear yet.

To conclude the day, a large shard of pottery with an olive green glaze inside, probably from an oil jar, is discovered at the same place.

During these improvised works, the rest of the team is busy patching the site, the work goes quickly and will almost be finished tomorrow or after tomorrow morning.

By mid-afternoon, we saw from the main weather building, a tortoise on the southeast beach, Jean-Michel and Jean-Francois go and see, the turtle is dead.
After walking along the beach, it seems to have stopped, exhausted a few meters from the sea, reeling from the heat.
Tonight the weather team went to bury it on the beach.