Thor Heyerdahl: Celebrating 100 Years of Kon-Tiki
Source: en.ria.ru
The legendary Norwegian adventurer and voyager Thor Heyerdahl, famous for his breathtaking oceanic expeditions on hand-made boats, would have celebrated his one-hundred-year anniversary today.
Born October 6, 1914 in a small town in Norway, Thor Heyerdahl fell in love with biology as a child, and later studied zoology and geography at the University of Oslo.
In 1939-1940 Heyerdahl undertook several ethnographic and archeological expeditions to study Native Americans of Canada. During WWII, he moved to the USA and trained as a paratrooper and then joined the Free Norwegian Forces.
Basing on ancient legends, archeological evidence and conquistadors’ drawings, in 1946 Thor Heyerdahl advanced a hypothesis that Polynesia could have been colonized by people form America, contradicting the generally accepted idea that Polynesia was populated by South-Eastern natives.
Despite broad skepticism, Thor Heyerdahl and his associates constructed a raft of nine balsa tree trunks 10-14 meter long and named it Kon-Tiki after a Polynesian mythology hero that allegedly had come from the East and established the first colonies in Polynesia. The raft was created in accordance with ancient drawings and technology.
On August 7, 1947 their 101-day-long journey from Peru to the Tuamotu Archipelago was successful, proving Heyerdahl’s theory. He received an Oscar for the documentary in 1951.
Following the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) of 1955-1956, Heyerdahl built a traditional Egyptian papyrus boat named Ra-I and tried to cross the Atlantic. His first attempt failed but he succeeded in 1970 with Ra-II, an improved boat. Thus he proved the possibility of transatlantic voyages by ancient sailors.
In 1977, Thor Heyerdahl constructed a reed boat called Tigris and took to the road, trying to check whether there could be trade ties between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization. In 1978, after five months of successful sailing, he burnt the boat protesting against “inhuman elements in the world”, including wars in the Red Sea region.
Later, the famous adventure-seeker carried out archeological expeditions in the Maldives, Tenerife, and the Caucasus. His books based on his travels have been bestsellers. Thor Heyerdahl passed away on April 18, 2002.
Source: en.ria.ru
For more on Thors work, see the movie Kon-Tiki
Also see: Facebook Community: Thor Heyerdahl 100 years 1914 - 2014
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