The Diaries |
November 6th 2008 |
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At the morning briefing, we stop on the significance of the updated relics since the beginning of the week. Each person measures the importance to have discovered a site suddenly abandoned and remained in the state where it was at this instant, there in November 1776. If in the course of the previous campaign, this consideration had rested on the discovery of some objects apparently left in place at the time of the departure of the survivors, it’s now about an entire place, a small building with all the objects which it contained, still in their place, but also in front of and around this building a whole space, organized, furnished with objects. Somebody speaks about Pompeii of the Indian Ocean, of course the word is too strong, and the too modest place, but it is definitely the same type of feeling that clutches us all. We decided to take our time to document the best possible the site: photographs, filming, drawings and precise plans, also to enjoy a little bit the force of the show and our chance: the wall of the modern building took support on the northern wall of the XVIIIth building and the destruction caused by the digging of its foundations stopped at only 50 cm.
Before taking photographs, we end up clearing the entrance of the building; a large flat stone is used as a step of the door. Outside, on the right of the entrance, a large washbowl rests on a flat stone; it was to probably be used as a water reserve. A little before the entrance, on the left this time, a home where an iron tripod is found; while cleaning around this last, appears two containers in form of a cup and a copper pan. Inside, at the bottom of the building, a rectangular home is delimited by flat stones posed on field, at the top a large iron ring fixed between the blocks of coral was used as a support for the containers during cooking. Copper containers are piled up one in another, the last contains a triton pierced at its end, and with which we will of course try to produce a sound. As cleaning advances, small objects appear: a hook, large spoons, needles, a spoon made in porcelain, one of the large tin dishes recovers others which we had not seen yesterday. The harvest is considerable and leaves us dazed. |