Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer who argued that ancient peoples could cross oceans using simple vessels. His 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition demonstrated that a balsa-wood raft could travel from South America to Polynesia.

Kon-Tiki expedition: A 1947 voyage in which Thor Heyerdahl and five companions sailed a balsa-wood raft from Peru to Polynesia. This Pacific crossing became Heyerdahl’s best-known test of ancient raft travel.
Polynesian origins debate: The scholarly debate over the ancestry and migration routes of the peoples who settled Polynesia. Mainstream evidence points to west-to-east settlement from Asia, unlike Heyerdahl’s proposed South American origin.
Polynesia: A region of the Pacific Ocean encompassing thousands of islands, including Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. The destination region at the center of Heyerdahl’s Pacific migration claims.
Kon-Tiki (book): Thor Heyerdahl’s 1948 account of the Kon-Tiki expedition, later translated into many languages. The bestselling narrative carried his voyage and migration argument to a worldwide audience.
Ra II expedition: A 1970 Atlantic crossing by Thor Heyerdahl’s crew aboard a papyrus-reed boat built in the style of ancient Egyptian craft. Heyerdahl used this voyage to test whether reed boats could cross the Atlantic.
Polynesian voyaging: The long-distance navigation and ocean voyaging practiced by Polynesian societies. Polynesian navigators had sophisticated seafaring traditions that Heyerdahl’s raft experiments did not replicate.
Balsa raft: A raft constructed from buoyant balsa logs, often lashed together with rope. The Kon-Tiki’s construction made the expedition’s central feasibility test possible.
Kon-Tiki (film): A 1950 Norwegian documentary film about the Kon-Tiki expedition, directed by Thor Heyerdahl and Erik Hesselberg. The Oscar-winning film made the raft voyage a widely shared visual event.
Tigris expedition: A 1977–1978 voyage in which Thor Heyerdahl sailed a reed boat from Iraq toward the Indian Ocean. It extended his experiments with ancient watercraft beyond the Atlantic and Pacific.
Thor Heyerdahl's migration theories: Thor Heyerdahl’s proposals that ancient peoples from the Americas and elsewhere helped settle distant islands. These claims went beyond the narrower question his voyages could test: whether a crossing was feasible.

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Polynesian navigationCompared with: His migration theory contrasts with evidence for Polynesian voyaging and settlement from the west.