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The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name.
- Thor Heyerdahl
- 1948
My guess is that many more know of the Kon Tiki—documented in an Academy-Award-winning film, than of the far more significant Hōkūleʻa that Piailug piloted. Here’s why it should be the other...
Kon-Tiki, raft in which the Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl and five companions sailed in 1947 from the western coast of South America to the islands east of Tahiti. Heyerdahl was interested in demonstrating the possibility that ancient people from the Americas could have colonized Polynesia; to.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Many Theories
- The Crew
- The Voyage
- Kon-Tiki on The Big screen
- The Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo
- Kon-Tiki’S Place in History
One theory, advanced in the 1930s is that the Islands were populated step-by-step from South-East Asia. But many remained unconvinced, including a Norwegian Explorer and Ethnographer by the name of Thor Heyerdahl. Thor’s theory was that the islands making up Polynesia were settled from the West by natives of South America using ‘drift voyaging’ – b...
Thor set about assembling a crew, each of which could bring a useful skill to the voyage. All had to be hardy and courageous – this was to be a long and treacherous voyage – and it wasn’t long before he’d found his team. In total, the six-man crew consisted of five Norwegians and one Swede. Herman Watzinger was a thermodynamics engineer. He was in ...
The team travelled to Ecuador to secure a supply of balsa wood and then on to Peru where they built the raft. The raft carried around 1000 litres of drinking water in both ancient and modern containers – to prove that ancient storage was up to the task – and foods such as sweet potatoes and coconuts that would have been available to the ancient voy...
Like all sailors, especially ones with a point to prove, Thor made copious notes and logs along the journey. Most importantly, the crew had a single 16mm video camera, which they used to document the expedition. The combination of this film, with stills and diagrams explaining the process of building the raft, forms the basis of the documentary Kon...
Located in Oslo, the museum is a record of everything related to the expedition. Read more: The Best Museums in Oslo You can read the whole story and see photos of the crew along the way. The Oscar-winning documentary of the voyage plays throughout the day. The crowning glory of the museum, however, is the original raft, which takes pride of place ...
The Kon-Tiki voyage was a huge success and proved beyond doubt that Polynesia COULD have been settled from South America. It did, however, do nothing to prove that it was! More recent advances in genetic testing and radiocarbon dating have shown that, whilst some South American origins are present in the Polynesian DNA pool, the vast majority is di...
Kon-Tiki was the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name.
Aug 2, 2023 · It’s the story of the Kon-Tiki expedition. Picture this: The year is 1947. World War II has left the world scarred and weary. Yet amidst this landscape of despair and rebirth, a dream takes...
Jul 12, 2024 · Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer who organized and led the famous Kon-Tiki (1947) and Ra (1969–70) transoceanic scientific expeditions. Both expeditions were intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between distant civilizations and cultures.
