The 2004 season of fieldwork on Ile de la Passe concentrated on carefully targeted excavation aimed at the resolution of specific problems relating to adaptations to the Lower Battery, installations behind the Upper Battery, the Central Platform, the Ditch and features at the north-western corner of the islet. In addition, further documentation of the built structures was undertaken, of which the clearance and recording of a World War Two (WW II) cement floor (Structure 32) above an earlier feature on the south side of the Cistern was the most significant. Finally, further recording of the graffiti was undertaken although this arduous task remains far from complete.
    We were most grateful to Mr Yann von Arnim for making an underwater reconnaissance around the islet. All fragments and artifacts recovered by Mr von Arnim have been catalogued and handed to the NHF for deposition in the Mauritius Institute. An illustrated catalogue has been submitted under separate cover.
    We are also extremely grateful to Mr Owen Griffiths and Dr Anwar Janoo for their identifications of the small (and unexciting) fragments of animal bones and other organic remains (Appendix II), which have also been deposited in the Mauritius Institute.
    The team (Fig. 11) comprised the authors of this report, who were the Principle Investigators, NHT Representative Mr Vickram Mugdon, together with two teams of volunteers from the Earthwatch Institute, each of which comprised five volunteers who participated for two weeks. There were, in addition, local volunteers on occasions. Local workmen were employed to clear vegetation, to clean up the islet and to help with heavy excavation work and backfilling.

The Islet and its Monuments at the Start of the 2004 Season

   Between the end of the 2003 season and the start of the 2004 campaign a considerable amount of rubbish had once again accumulated on Ile de la Passe but, in part because of poor weather over the Christmas and New year period, the islet was not in such a foul condition as it had been at the start of the 2003 campaign. The Coast Guard (Fig. 12) kindly removed many sacks of rubbish for proper disposal on the mainland and by the end of the 2004 campaign the islet was left free of recent rubbish.
    Of particular concern, however, was that yet more damage had been done to standing structures as a result of cooking-fires having been lit against walls and inside