Heyerdahl is notable for hisKon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he drifted 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across thePacific Ocean in a primitive hand-built raft fromSouth America to theTuamotu Islands. The expedition was supposed to demonstrate that the legendary sun-worshiping red-haired, bearded, and white-skinned "Tiki people" fromSouth America drifted and colonizedPolynesia first, before actualPolynesian peoples. Hishyperdiffusionist ideas on ancient cultures had been widely rejected by the scientific community, even before the expedition.[1][2][3][4]
Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably theRa II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from thewest coast of Africa toBarbados in apapyrus reed boat. He was appointed agovernment scholar in 1984.[why?]
He died on 18 April 2002 inColla Micheri, Italy, while visiting close family members. The Norwegian government gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002.[5]
In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added toUNESCO'sMemory of the World Register.[6] At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world.[7] The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, and original book and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by theKon-Tiki Museum and theNational Library of Norway in Oslo.
Heyerdahl was born inLarvik,[8] Norway, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl (1869–1957) and his wife, Alison Lyng (1873–1965). As a young child, Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology, inspired by his mother, who had a strong interest inCharles Darwin's theory ofevolution. He created a smallmuseum in his childhood home, with a common adder (Vipera berus) as the main attraction.
He studiedzoology andgeography at the faculty of biological science at theUniversity of Oslo.[9] At the same time, he privately studiedPolynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world's largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned byBjarne Kroepelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. (This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kroepelien's heirs and was attached to theKon-Tiki Museum research department.)
After seven terms and consultations with experts inBerlin, a project was developed and sponsored by Heyerdahl's zoology professors,Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there.
On the day before they sailed together to theMarquesas Islands in 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Torp (1916–1969), whom he had met at the University of Oslo, and who had studiedeconomics there. He was 22 years old and she was 20 years old. Eventually, the couple had two sons: Thor Jr. (1938–2024)[10] and Bjørn (1940–2021).[11] The marriage ended in divorce shortly before the 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition, which Liv had helped to organize.[12]
In 1949, Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen (1924–2006). They had three daughters: Annette, Marian, and Helene Elisabeth. They were divorced in 1979. Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children. In his autobiography, he concluded that he should take the entire blame for their separation.[15]
In 1991, Heyerdahl marriedJacqueline Beer (born 1932) as his third wife. They lived inTenerife,Canary Islands, and were very actively involved with archaeological projects, especially inTúcume, Peru, andAzov until his death in 2002. He had still been hoping to undertake an archaeological project inSamoa before he died.[16]
In 1936, on the day after his marriage to Liv Coucheron Torp, the young couple set out for the South Pacific Island ofFatu Hiva. They nominally had an academic mission, to research the spread of animal species between islands, but in reality they intended to "run away to the South Seas" and never return home.[17]
Aided by expedition funding from their parents, they nonetheless arrived on the island lacking "provisions, weapons or a radio". Residents in Tahiti, where they stopped en route, did convince them to take a machete and a cooking pot.[12]
They arrived at Fatu Hiva in 1937, in the valley ofOmo‘a, and decided to cross over the island's mountainous interior to settle in one of the small, nearly abandoned, valleys on the eastern side of the island. There, they made theirthatch-covered stilted home in the valley ofUia.[17]
Living in such primitive conditions was a daunting task, but they managed to live off the land, and work on their academic goals, by collecting and studying zoological and botanical specimens. They discovered unusual artifacts, listened to the natives' oral history traditions, and took note of the prevailing winds and ocean currents.[12]
Despite the seemingly idyllic situation, the exposure to various tropical diseases and other difficulties caused them to return to civilisation a year later. They worked together to write an account of their adventure.[12]
The events surrounding his stay on theMarquesas, most of the time onFatu Hiva, were told first in his bookPå Jakt etter Paradiset (Hunt for Paradise) (1938), which was published in Norway but, following the outbreak ofWorld War II, was never translated and remained largely forgotten. Many years later, having achieved notability with other adventures and books on other subjects, Heyerdahl published a new account of this voyage under the titleFatu Hiva (London:Allen & Unwin, 1974). The story of his time on Fatu Hiva and his side trip to Hivaoa and Mohotani is also related inGreen Was the Earth on the Seventh Day (Random House, 1996).
In 1947 Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers sailed fromPeru to theTuamotu Islands,French Polynesia in araft that they had constructed frombalsa wood and other native materials, christened theKon-Tiki. TheKon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the SpanishConquistadors ofInca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact betweenSouth America andPolynesia. TheKon-Tiki smashed into thereef atRaroia in the Tuamotus on 7 August 1947 after a 101-day, 4,300-nautical-mile (5,000-mile or 8,000 km)[18] journey across thePacific Ocean. Heyerdahl had nearly drowned at least twice in childhood and did not take easily to water; he said later that there were times in each of his raft voyages when he feared for his life.[19]
In 1955–1956, Heyerdahl organised the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition toEaster Island. The expedition's scientific staff includedArne Skjølsvold,Carlyle Smith,Edwin Ferdon,Gonzalo Figueroa[24] andWilliam Mulloy. Heyerdahl and the professional archaeologists who travelled with him spent several months on Easter Island investigating several important archaeological sites. Highlights of the project include experiments in the carving, transport and erection of the notablemoai, as well as excavations at such prominent sites asOrongo andPoike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific) and Heyerdahl later added a third (The Art of Easter Island). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject,Aku-Aku was another international best-seller.[25]
InEaster Island: The Mystery Solved (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory ofthe island's history. Working withRapanui archaeologistSonia Haoa Cardinali[26] and using other Rapanui evidence, he claimed the island was originally colonised byHanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that PolynesianHanau momoko ("Short Ears") arrived only in the mid-16th century; they may have come independently or perhaps were imported as workers. According to Heyerdahl, something happened between Admiral Roggeveen's discovery of the island in 1722 and James Cook's visit in 1774; while Roggeveen encountered white, Indian, and Polynesian people living in relative harmony and prosperity[citation needed], Cook encountered a much smaller population consisting mainly of Polynesians and living in privation. Heyerdahl notes the oral tradition of an uprising of "Short Ears" against the ruling "Long Ears." The "Long Ears" dug a defensive moat on the eastern end of the island and filled it with kindling. During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the "Long Ears" ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the "Short Ears" found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the "Long Ears" into the fire. This moat was found by the Norwegian expedition and it was partly cut down into the rock. Layers of fire were revealed but no fragments of bodies.[citation needed]
The basis of theKon-Tiki expedition was Heyerdahl's belief that the original inhabitants ofEaster Island (and the rest ofPolynesia) were the "Tiki people", a race of "white bearded men" who supposedly originally sailed fromPeru. He described these "Tiki people" as being a sun-worshipping fair-skinned people with blue eyes, fair or red hair, tall statures, and beards. He further said that these people were originally from theMiddle East, and had crossed theAtlantic earlier to found the greatMesoamerican civilizations. By 500 CE, a branch of these people were supposedly forced out intoTiahuanaco where they became the ruling class of theInca Empire and set out to voyage into the Pacific Ocean under the leadership of "Con Ticci Viracocha".[1][2]
Heyerdahl said that when the Europeans first came to the Pacific islands, they were astonished that they found some of the natives to have relatively light skins and beards. There were whole families that had pale skin, hair varying in colour from reddish to blonde. In contrast, most of the Polynesians had golden-brown skin, raven-black hair, and rather flat noses. Heyerdahl claimed that whenJacob Roggeveen discoveredEaster Island in 1722, he supposedly noticed that many of the natives were white-skinned. Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were "white-skinned" right back to the time of Tiki andHotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun". The ethnographic evidence for these claims is outlined in Heyerdahl's bookAku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island.[27] He argued that the monumental statues known asmoai resembled sculptures more typical of pre-Columbian Peru than any Polynesian designs. He believed that the Easter Island myth of a power struggle between two peoples called theHanau epe andHanau momoko was a memory of conflicts between the original inhabitants of the island and a later wave of "Native Americans" from the Northwest coast, eventually leading to the annihilation of the Hanau epe and the destruction of the island's culture and once-prosperous economy.[28][29] Heyerdahl described these later "Native American" migrants as "Maori-Polynesians" who were supposedly Asians who crossed over theBering land bridge intoNorthwest America before sailing westward towards Polynesia (the westward direction is because he refused to accept that Polynesians were capable of sailing against winds and currents). He associated them with theTlingit andHaida peoples and characterized them as "inferior" to the Tiki people.[2]
Despite these claims, DNA sequence analysis of Easter Island's current inhabitants indicates that the 36 people living on Rapa Nui who survived the devastating internecine wars, slave raids, and epidemics of the 19th century and had any offspring[27] were Polynesian. Furthermore, examination of skeletons offers evidence of only Polynesian origins for Rapa Nui living on the island after 1680.[30]
TheHōkūleʻa, a performance-accurate replica of aPolynesian double-hulledwa'a kaulua voyaging canoe, sailed fromHawaiʻi toTahiti against prevailing winds in 1976, partly to disprove Heyerdahl's drift hypothesis on his much more primitive and unsteerableKon-Tiki balsa raft[3]
Heyerdahl's hypothesis of Polynesian origins from the Americas is consideredpseudoscientific,racially controversial, and has not gained acceptance among scientists (even prior to the voyage).[31][32][2][3][4] It is overwhelmingly rejected by scientists today. Archaeological, linguistic, cultural, and genetic evidence all support a western origin (fromIsland Southeast Asia) for Polynesians via theAustronesian expansion.[33][34][35] "Drift voyaging" from South America was also deemed "extremely unlikely" in 1973 by computer modeling.[3]
The 1976 voyage of theHōkūleʻa, a performance-accurate replica of aPolynesian double-hulledwa'a kaulua voyaging canoe, fromHawaiʻi toTahiti was partly a demonstration to prove that Heyerdahl was wrong. TheHōkūleʻa sailed against prevailing winds and exclusively usedwayfinding andcelestialPolynesian navigation techniques (unlike the modern equipment and charts of theKon-Tiki).[3][36][37]Hōkūleʻa also remains fully operational, and has since completed ten other voyages, including a three-yearcircumnavigation of the planet from 2014 to 2017, with other sister ships.[38][39]
Heyerdahl's hypothesis was part of earlyEurocentrichyperdiffusionism and thewesterner disbelief that (non-white) "stone-age" peoples with "no math" could colonize islands separated by vast distances of ocean water, even against prevailing winds and currents. He rejected the highly skilled voyaging and navigating traditions of theAustronesian peoples and instead argued that Polynesia was settled from boats following the wind and currents for navigation from South America. As such, theKon-Tiki was deliberately a primitive raft and unsteerable, in contrast to the sophisticatedoutrigger canoes andcatamarans of the Austronesian people.[40][3]
AnthropologistRobert Carl Suggs included a chapter titled "The Kon-Tiki Myth" in his 1960 book on Polynesia, concluding that "TheKon-Tiki theory is about as plausible as the tales ofAtlantis,Mu, and 'Children of the Sun.' Like most such theories, it makes exciting light reading, but as an example of scientific method it fares quite poorly."[41] Anthropologist andNational Geographic Explorer-in-ResidenceWade Davis also criticized Heyerdahl's theory in his 2009 bookThe Wayfinders, which explores the history of Polynesia. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."[42]Paul Theroux, in his bookThe Happy Isles of Oceania, also criticizes Heyerdahl for trying to link the culture of Polynesian islands with the Peruvian culture.
Recent scientific investigation that compares the DNA of some of the Polynesian islands with natives from Peru suggests that there is some merit to some of Heyerdahl's ideas and that while Polynesia was colonized from Asia, some contact with South America also existed; a number of papers have in the last few years confirmed with genetic data some form of contacts withEaster Island.[43][44][45] Responding to one ofthese papers, archaeologist Terry Hunt said "It is good to see this kind of research, but a definitive answer isn't really possible given the lack of chronological control... Native American genes reaching Rapa Nui with European contact cannot be ruled out."[46]
After a number of weeks,Ra took on water. The crew discovered that a key element of the Egyptian boatbuilding method had been neglected, a tether that acted like a spring to keep the stern high in the water while allowing for flexibility.[47] Water and storms eventually caused it to sag and break apart after sailing more than 6,400 km (4,000 miles). The crew was forced to abandon Ra, some hundred miles (160 km) before the Caribbean islands, and was saved by a yacht.
The following year, 1970, a similar vessel,Ra II, was built from Ethiopian papyrus byBolivian citizens Demetrio, Juan and José Limachi ofLake Titicaca, and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success. The crew was mostly the same; though Djibrine had been replaced by Kei Ohara from Japan and Madani Ait Ouhanni from Morocco. The boat became lost and was the subject of a United Nations search and rescue mission. The search included international assistance including people as far afield asLoo-Chi Hu of New Zealand. The boat reachedBarbados, thus demonstrating that mariners could have dealt with trans-Atlantic voyages by sailing with theCanary Current.[48] TheRa II is now in theKon-Tiki Museum inOslo, Norway.
The bookThe Ra Expeditions and the film documentaryRa (1972) were made about the voyages. Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity inrace,nationality,religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that, at least on their own little floating island, people could co-operate and live peacefully. Additionally, the expedition took samples ofmarine pollution and presented its report to theUnited Nations.[49]
Heyerdahl built yet anotherreed boat in 1977,Tigris, which was intended to demonstrate that trade and migration could have linkedMesopotamia with theIndus Valley civilization in what is now Pakistan and western India. Tigris was built inAl Qurnah Iraq and sailed with its international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and made its way into the Red Sea.[50]
After about five months at sea and still remaining seaworthy, theTigris was deliberately burnt inDjibouti on 3 April 1978 as a protest against the wars raging on every side in theRed Sea andHorn of Africa. In his Open Letter to the UN Secretary-GeneralKurt Waldheim, Heyerdahl explained his reasons:[51]
Today we burn our proud ship ... to protest against inhuman elements in the world of 1978 ... Now we are forced to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military airplanes and warships from the world's most civilized and developed nations, we have been denied permission by friendly governments, for reasons of security, to land anywhere, but in the tiny, and still neutral, Republic of Djibouti. Elsewhere around us, brothers and neighbors are engaged in homicide with means made available to them by those who lead humanity on our joint road into the third millennium.
To the innocent masses in all industrialized countries, we direct our appeal. We must wake up to the insane reality of our time ... We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned.
Our planet is bigger than the reed bundles that have carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to run the same risks unless those of us still alive open our eyes and minds to the desperate need of intelligent collaboration to save ourselves and our common civilization from what we are about to convert into a sinking ship.
In the years that followed, Heyerdahl was often outspoken on issues of international peace and the environment.
TheTigris had an 11-man crew: Thor Heyerdahl (Norway),Norman Baker (US),Carlo Mauri (Italy),Yuri Senkevich (USSR), Germán Carrasco (Mexico), Hans Petter Bohn (Norway),Rashad Nazar Salim (Iraq), Norris Brock (US), Toru Suzuki (Japan), Detlef Soitzek (Germany), and Asbjørn Damhus (Denmark).
Heyerdahl made four visits toAzerbaijan in 1981,[52] 1994, 1999 and 2000.[53] Heyerdahl had long been fascinated with the rock carvings that date back to about 8th–7th millennia BCE atGobustan (about 30 miles/48 km west ofBaku). He was convinced that their artistic style closely resembled the carvings found in his native Norway. The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle-shaped line, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.
Based on this and other published documentation, Heyerdahl proposed that Azerbaijan was the site of an ancient advanced civilization. He believed that natives migrated north through waterways to present-dayScandinavia using ingeniously constructed vessels made of skins that could be folded like cloth. When voyagers travelled upstream, they conveniently folded their skin boats and transported them on pack animals.
On Heyerdahl's visit to Baku in 1999, he lectured at theAcademy of Sciences about the history of ancient Nordic Kings. He spoke of a notation made bySnorri Sturluson, a 13th-century historian-mythographer inYnglinga Saga, which relates that "Odin (a Scandinavian god who was one of the kings) came to the North with his people from a country calledAser."[54] (see alsoHouse of Ynglings andMythological kings of Sweden). Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward throughSaxony, toFyn inDenmark, and eventually settling inSweden. Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan – "east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea". "We are no longer talking about mythology," Heyerdahl said, "but of the realities ofgeography andhistory.Azerbaijanis should be proud of their ancient culture. It is just as rich and ancient as that ofChina andMesopotamia."
Thor Heyerdahl in 2000
In September 2000 Heyerdahl returned to Baku for the fourth time and visited the archaeological dig in the area of theChurch of Kish.[55]
One of the last projects of his life,Jakten på Odin, 'The Search for Odin', was a sudden revision of his Odin hypothesis, in furtherance of which he initiated 2001–2002 excavations inAzov,Russia, near theSea of Azov at the northeast of theBlack Sea.[56] He searched for the remains of a civilization to match the account of Odin in Snorri Sturlusson, significantly further north of his original target of Azerbaijan on theCaspian Sea only two years earlier. This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudoscience from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.[57][58]
His central claims were based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and geographic names in the Black Sea region, e.g.Azov andÆsir,Udi and Odin,Tyr andTurkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1,000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwelt there. The controversy surrounding the Search for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and the academic community. His theories rarely won any scientific acceptance, whereas Heyerdahl himself rejected all scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular books aimed at the general public.[citation needed]
As of 2025[update], Heyerdahl's Odin hypothesis has yet to be validated by any historian, archaeologist or linguist.[citation needed]
In 1991 he studied thePyramids of Güímar onTenerife and declared that they were not random stone heaps but pyramids. Based on the discovery made by the astrophysicists Aparicio, Belmonte and Esteban, from theInstituto de Astrofísica de Canarias that the "pyramids" were astronomically orientated and being convinced that they were of ancient origin, he claimed that the ancient people who built them were most likely sun worshippers. Heyerdahl hypothesized that the Canarian pyramids formed a temporal and geographic stopping point on voyages between ancient Egypt and theMaya civilization, initiating a controversy in which historians, esoterics, archaeologists, astronomers, and those with a general interest in history took part.[59][60]
Between 1991 and 1998,archaeological excavations of the site were conducted by archaeologists of theUniversity of La Laguna. Preliminary findings were presented at a colloquium in 1996, providing evidence for the dating of the pyramids.[61] According to the preceding geophysicalGeoradar-Survey eight locations adjacent to the pyramids, each with an area of 25 m2, were investigated in layers down to the solid lava-floor. In doing so it was possible to establish three specific sediment layers. Starting from the top these were:
A layer of thickness averaging 20 cm, consisting of humus-rich earth with many plant remains and roots; tracks from ploughing were clearly identifiable as were a broad spectrum of readily datable finds from the second half of the 20th century.
A layer of thickness averaging 25 cm, similar in composition to the first layer, however containing less humus and a larger amount of small stones; a large variety of finds which could be dated to the 19th and 20th century were found, of which an official seal from 1848 deserves particular mention.
A layer of thickness between 25 and 150 cm, composed out of smallvolcanic rocks, most likely put in place in one movement, which levelled the uneven stone underneath; the stones contained only very few finds, mostly a small number ofpottery shards, of which some was local and some imported, both kinds were roughly estimated as belonging to the 19th century. The pyramids stand stratigraphically directly on top of this bottom layer, therefore allowing for an earliest date of construction of the pyramids within the 19th century.[62]
Furthermore, under the border edge of one of the pyramids, a naturallava cave was discovered. It had been walled up and yielded artefacts from the time of theGuanches. Since the pyramids lie stratigraphically above the cave, the Guanche finds from between 600 and 1000 AD can only support conclusions on the date of human use of the cave. The above survey indicates that the pyramids themselves cannot be older than the 19th century.[63]
Heyerdahl also investigated the mounds[which?] found on theMaldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. There, he found sun-orientated foundations and courtyards, as well as statues with elongated earlobes. Heyerdahl believed that these finds fit with his theory of a seafaring civilization which originated in what is nowSri Lanka, colonized theMaldives, and influenced or founded the cultures of ancient South America and Easter Island. His discoveries are detailed in his bookThe Maldive Mystery.[citation needed]
Heyerdahl was also an active figure inGreen politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11honorary doctorates from universities in theAmericas andEurope.
In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was involved with other expeditions and archaeological projects. He remained best known for his boatbuilding, and for his emphasis on culturaldiffusionism.[64]
Historian Axel Andersson wrote that "Unfortunately Heyerdahl was almost never challenged when it came to the racism of his theories, neither at the time of the Kon-Tiki nor, surprisingly, at any time later. ... The racism in the Kon-Tiki theory that was so clearly articulated by Heyerdahl became invisible with a disturbing ease. That it also remained equally uncommented on throughout the second half of the twentieth century shows the stubborn persistency of racial theories. Now the time has come not to dismiss Heyerdahl as a racist but to uncover the sooty kernel at the heart of Heyerdahls fantasy, and our fantasy of Heyerdahl.[65]
Graham Holton of the Institute of Latin American Studies wrote that "The core of the Kontiki theory is that a white race came from the Middle East to the Americas and then on to Polynesia to teach the dark-skinned people the arts of civilisation (Heyerdahl 1952). Edward Norbeck attacked the book for Heyerdahl's assumptions, and asserted that it was 'difficult for many persons to avoid reading racism from this work' (quoted in Wauchope 1962, 120). Throughout the text, Heyerdahl uses concepts such as 'racial hygiene', 'racial cleansing', and 'race wars'. Heyerdahl's theory holds that a blond/red-haired, blue-eyed, dynastic 'race' of masons and miners migrated around the world civilising the dark-skinned 'races'"[1]
The Norwegian government honored him with astate funeral in theOslo Cathedral on 26 April 2002. Until 2024, he was buried in the garden of the family home in Colla Micheri.[5] In 2024, his urn was moved to a new grave in the graveyard ofLarvik Church, the same church he was baptized in. He was an atheist.[68][69]
Although much of his work was not accepted by the scientific community for many years, Heyerdahl nevertheless increased public interest in ancient history and anthropology. He also showed that long-distance ocean voyages were possible with ancient designs. As such, he was a major practitioner ofexperimental archaeology. TheKon-Tiki Museum on theBygdøy peninsula inOslo, Norway houses vessels and maps from the Kon-Tiki expedition, as well as a library with about 8,000 books.
The Thor Heyerdahl Institute was established in 2000. Heyerdahl himself agreed to the founding of the institute and it aims to promote and continue to develop Heyerdahl's ideas and principles. The institute is located in Heyerdahl's birth town of Larvik, Norway. InLarvik, the birthplace of Heyerdahl, the municipality began a project in 2007 to attract more visitors. Since then, they have purchased and renovated Heyerdahl's childhood home, arranged a yearly raft regatta in his honour at the end of summer and begun to develop a Heyerdahl centre.[70]
Heyerdahl's grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather'sKon-Tiki voyage in 2006 as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, organised by Torgeir Higraff and called theTangaroa Expedition,[71] was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centreboards ("guara[72]") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.
A book about the Tangaroa Expedition[73] by Torgeir Higraff was published in 2007. The book has numerous photos from theKon-Tiki voyage 60 years earlier and is illustrated with photographs by Tangaroa crew member Anders Berg (Oslo: Bazar Forlag, 2007). "Tangaroa Expedition"[74] has also been produced as a documentary DVD in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Spanish.
Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations, 1979
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
The Maldive Mystery, 1986
Green Was the Earth on the Seventh Day: Memories and Journeys of a Lifetime
Pyramids of Tucume: The Quest for Peru's Forgotten City
Skjebnemøte vest for havet [Fate Meets West of the Ocean], 1992 (in Norwegian and German only) the Native Americans tell their story, white and bearded Gods, infrastructure was not built by the Inkas but their more advanced predecessors.
In the Footsteps of Adam: A Memoir (the official edition is Abacus, 2001, translated by Ingrid Christophersen)ISBN0-349-11273-8
Ingen Grenser (No Boundaries, Norwegian only), 1999[83]
Jakten på Odin (Theories about Odin, Norwegian only), 2001
^abcHolton, Graham E. L. (1 July 2004). "Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki Theory and the Denial of the Indigenous Past".Anthropological Forum.14 (2):163–181.doi:10.1080/0066467042000238976.
^Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki has been translated into 71 languages, according to the Director of Kon-Tiki Museum, September 2013. Azerbaijani language being the 70th.
^Heyderdahl, Thor.Easter Island – The Mystery Solved. Random House New York 1989.
^Robert C. Suggs, "Kon-Tiki", in Rosemary G. Gillespie, D. A. Clague (eds),Encyclopedia of Islands, University of California Press, 2009, pp. 515–516.
^Van Tilburg, Jo Anne. 1994.Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 104464 skeletons – definitely Polynesian
^Wauchope, Robert (1962)Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents: Myth and Method in the Study of American Indians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.|page=120
^Robert C. Suggs,The Island Civilizations of Polynesia, New York: New American Library, p. 224.
^Wade Davis,The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, Crawley: University of Western Australia Publishing, p. 46.
^Thorsby, E.; Flåm, S. T.; Woldseth, B.; Dupuy, B. M.; Sanchez-Mazas, A.; Fernandez-Vina, M. A. (2009). "Further evidence of an Amerindian contribution to the Polynesian gene pool on Easter Island".Tissue Antigens.73 (6):582–585.doi:10.1111/j.1399-0039.2009.01233.x.PMID19493235.
^Forecoming 2014: Thor Heyerdahl and Azerbaijan, to be published jointly by University of Oslo and Azerbaijan University of Languages, Editor Vibeke Roeggen et al.
^Juan Francisco Navarro Mederos:Arqueología de las Islas Canarias, in: Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie I, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Bd. 10, 1997, S. 467.
^Antonio Aparicio Juan/César Esteban López,Las Pirámides de Güímar: mito y realidad. Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, La Laguna 2005,ISBN978-84-7926-510-6, p. 35-52.
^Maria Cruz Jiménez Gómez/Juan Francisco Navarro Mederos,El complejo de las morras de Chacona (Güímar, Tenerife): resultados del proyecto de investigación, XII Coloquio de Historia Canario-Americana (1996), Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 1998, vol. 1.
^Juan Francisco Navarro Mederos/Maria Cruz Jiménez Gómez:El difusionismo atlántico y las pirámides de Chacona, in: Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo y Domingo Sola Antequera: Arte y Sociedad del Egipto antiguo. Madrid 2000, S. 246-249.
^Part of the preceding sections are based on the German wikipedia articlePyramiden von Güímar.
^Tangaroa Expedition, available only in Norwegian (ISBN978-82-8087-199-2), 363 pages. The book has photos related to theKon-Tiki expedition 60 years earlier and is lavishly illustrated with Tangaroa photos by Swedish crew member Anders Berg.
.jpg)
.jpg)
