Tokyo, Sept. 16 (PTI): A group of adventurers and archaeologists have claimed to have discovered the place where Scottish navigator Alexander Selkirk, believed to have been the model for British adventure fiction hero Robinson Crusoe, lived.

The isolated island, in the South Pacific ocean, now called Robinson Crusoe island, is some 670 km off Chile, Daisuke Takahashi, a Japanese adventurer from Akita prefecture said yesterday.

Selkirk was left alone on the island in 1704, then uninhabited, after he was involved in a conflict on his vessel. He survived for four years and four months by catching goats and eating them while using their skin to make clothes. He was rescued by a British ship in 1709.

Radioactive carbon dating earlier this year showed the fireplace of a stone built residence on the island dates from around the time when Selkirk was there, Takahashi said.

Moreover, the group found what appears to be a copper navigational tool near the site. It is believed no one other than Selkirk owned navigation tools on the island in those days, Takahashi said. Robinson Crusoe was created by British writer Daniel Defoe in 1719.