Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition

Podcast Transcript

In 1947, a Norwegian adventurer named Thor Heyerdahl got down to show a concept of his that the folks of Polynesia got here there from South America.

To show his concept, he constructed a raft out of native supplies in Peru and set sail throughout the Pacific.

His voyage was profitable, however the identical couldn’t be mentioned for his theories.

Study extra about Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition on this episode of The whole lot In every single place Day by day.

The story of the Kon-Tiki begins with its creator, the Norwegian Thor Heyerdhal.

Heyerdhal was born on October 6, 1914, in Larvik, Norway. He grew up with a love for journey and exploration, which might form his profession and life’s work.

Heyerdahl’s curiosity in exploration started throughout his childhood, the place he would typically discover the close by forests and costal areas. He was additionally fascinated by archaeology and anthropology, which led him to check these topics on the College of Oslo.

Throughout his college years, Heyerdahl additionally got interested within the cultural and historic connections between completely different elements of the world, which might later inform his theories and expeditions.

In 1936, Heyerdahl moved to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, the place he researched native Polynesian tradition and wrote his thesis on the world’s prehistoric folks. Heyerdahl’s expertise residing among the many Polynesians and his fascination with their seafaring tradition would later encourage his Kon-Tiki Expedition.

Throughout World Struggle II, Heyerdahl served within the Norwegian military and labored as a radio operator. After the struggle, he moved to New York Metropolis, the place he met his future spouse, Liv Coucheron-Torp, a member of the Norwegian consulate. The couple would go on to have 4 kids.

Whereas these biographical information assist clarify how Thor Heyerdahl turned the persona he was, what makes him fascinating sufficient for a podcast episode are the theories that he developed whereas in French Polynesia.

The origin of the Polynesians was an open query within the first half of the twentieth century. In some way, these folks managed the best feats of navigation in historical past to populate among the most distant islands on the earth within the Pacific Ocean.

The massive query amongst anthropologists was, the place did they arrive from?

The prevailing view amongst anthropologists was that the Polynesians arrived within the Pacific by touring east from someplace in Southeast or East Asia. This concept was popularized by the nice New Zealand Maori anthropologist Te Rangi Hiroa, also called Sir Peter Buck.

Buck analyzed the tales of navigation from the folks of the Pacific and concluded that the origin of the folks within the Pacific was Southeast Asia. He printed his findings within the landmark e book Vikings of the Dawn.

Heyerdahl thought that Buck and others had it backward. He thought that Polynesians sailed west from the coast of South America.

Whereas Heyerdahl’s concept wasn’t within the mainstream, it additionally wasn’t loopy. On the time, many theories have been floated in regards to the origin of the Polynesian folks, together with that they got here from North America, India, and even, imagine it or not, Europe.

Heyerdahl’s largest piece of proof was the moai statues on Easter Island. He felt that they have been nearer to the kind of artwork present in South America reasonably than something present in Southeast Asia.

In truth, he had a reasonably elaborate concept that the primary inhabitants of Easter Island have been a folks referred to as the Tiki folks. He referenced an Incan legend of a solar god named Kon-Tiki Viracocha.

In line with the legend, Kon-Tiki Viracocha sailed into the sundown together with his folks from Peru.

He claimed that the Tiki folks would have sailed from South America through “drift voyaging.” Mainly, they might have constructed rafts after which let the winds and currents take them wherever they did.

That wasn’t all. In line with Heyerdahl, the Tiki folks populated the Americas by crusing throughout the Atlantic.

If you happen to’ve listened to my earlier episodes relating these subjects, you’ll not be stunned to search out that almost all anthropologists fully dismissed Hyerdahl’s concepts.

In truth, one anthropologist, Herbert Spinden, informed Hyerdahl, “Certain, see how far you get your self crusing from Peru to the South Pacific on a balsa Raft!”

So, that’s precisely what Thor Hyerdahl did.

He was going to show his concept by constructing a raft out of balsa wooden in South America and crusing it into the Pacific.

The raft and the expedition have been going to be named the Kon-Tiki, after the Incan solar god who supposedly sailed into the sundown.

Hyerdahl assembled a crew of six, together with himself, consisting of 5 Norwegians and one Swede.

The raft was constructed out of native supplies. The first part of the raft was the trunks of 9 balsa wooden bushes lashed along with hemp rope.

There was an A-frame shelter on the raft, with a protracted steering oar and a sail.

They saved 1000 liters of water in each historical and fashionable containers, and their meals consisted of what would have been out there to historical South American sailors. Primarily candy potatoes and coconuts.

The one fashionable factor they did have with them was a radio which they might use in case of emergency.

They set sail on April 28, 1947. They have been towed 50 miles out to see to keep away from coastal maritime site visitors.

They have been primarily carried westward by the Humbolt Present, which travels up the coast of South America and turns west close to the equator.

On July 2, they encountered a uncommon occasion at sea. They hit a rouge wave. They have been in calm seas, then three huge waves swept over the raft, after which issues have been calm once more.

They sighted the Puka-Puka atoll on July thirtieth after which handed the Angatau atoll on August 4th however couldn’t land.

The voyage lastly ended on August 7 once they beached themselves on the Raroia atoll within the Tuamotus Islands. The island was uninhabited, so that they stayed there for a number of days earlier than a person from a neighboring island visited.

They have been ultimately picked up by a French ship, and the Kon-Tiki was towed behind it.

Hyerdahl proved that it was attainable to sail a ship fabricated from pure supplies from South America to Polynesia. The issue was he didn’t actually show something. Whereas it was attainable for folks to sail from South America, it doesn’t imply that’s, in reality, what occurred.

No matter shortfalls Hyerdahl had as an anthropologist, he made up for it in advertising and marketing. He and the crew documented their voyage by taking copious notes and filming the whole lot with a 16mm video digicam.

In 1948 he printed a e book, The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Throughout the South Seas. The e book was a finest vendor in Norway, the place it was first launched and bought out in two weeks. It was launched in English in 1950, the place it was additionally a success.

As of at this time, it has been translated into 70 languages and has bought greater than 50 million copies worldwide.

In 1950, a documentary movie was launched in regards to the Kon-Tiki Expedition. It, too, was profitable, successful the Academy Award for Finest Documentary in 1951.

The success of the e book and the film made Thor Hyerdahl a family identify. Nonetheless, it did nothing to show his theories.

In 1955 and 1956, he led an expedition to Easter Island, overseeing a number of excavations. He interpreted his findings to help his concept of South People touring to Polynesia after which wrote one other worldwide finest vendor, Aku-Aku.

In 1969, he created one other boat to journey throughout the ocean, however this time he supposed to sail throughout the Atlantic to try to show the opposite a part of his concept.

He referred to as this new boat the Ra, after the Egyptian solar god. It was made out of papyrus reeds and assembled by boat builders from Lake Chad. It had a world crew and set off from Morocco.

Sadly, after just a few weeks, it took on water and ultimately disintegrated within the open ocean. The crew was picked up by a passing yacht.

He tried once more in 1970 with the Ra II. The Ra II was misplaced at sea for days sparking a world rescue mission, however it will definitely arrived on the shores of Barbados, once more proving it was attainable to cross the Atlantic Ocean simply utilizing ocean currents.

In 1977, he took half in yet one more expedition, this time attempting to show that the folks of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley might have had direct contact with one another.

This ship was referred to as the Tigris, and it was constructed and launched in Iraq.

They sailed the ship by means of the Persian Gulf however by no means made it to Pakistan, which was the vacation spot. After 5 months a sea, they arrived in Djibouti, the place they burned the ship in protest of all of the wars occurring within the area.

Later in his life, he labored on one thing he referred to as the Odin Speculation. This holds that the Norse gods, resembling Odin, have been precise individuals who migrated to Scandinavia from someplace in Russia or maybe as far south as Azerbaijan.

He additionally had different theories, resembling there have been pyramids on the island of Tenerife within the Canary Islands and that Sri Lanka and the Maldives have been as soon as a part of a world seafaring civilization.

Thor Hyderdahl handed away in 2002 on the age of 87.

Regardless of having developed worldwide renown for his expeditions, his theories added nearly nothing to our understanding of archeology.

Just about the whole lot he believed has been debunked, as increasingly more proof has been found.

DNA testing, radiometric courting, and different archeological finds haven’t offered proof for any of his theories. Just about the whole lot he believed has been relegated to the realm of pseudoscience.

Regardless of his incapability to advance science, Thor Hyderdahl continues to be remembered as an adventurer.

Oslo, Norway, is the house to the Kon-Tiki Museum. It homes among the unique vessels utilized in his voyages in addition to his archives.

In 2015, one other expedition came about referred to as Kon-Tiki 2. It was additionally a raft fabricated from balsa bushes and managed to sail from Peru to Easter Island. They tried to sail again to South America however needed to abandon ship halfway by means of the return.

The lesson of Thor Hyderdahl is that simply since you show one thing may very well be executed doesn’t imply that it was truly executed. Whereas he did cross an ocean with primitive supplies, he knew that there was one thing on the opposite finish earlier than his voyages began.

That easy indisputable fact that historical folks lacked in all probability prevented them from ever trying such a voyage within the first place.

The Government Producer of The whole lot In every single place Day by day is Charles Daniel.

The affiliate producers are Thor Thomsen and Peter Bennett.

In the present day’s overview comes from listener Jprats over on Apple Podcasts in the US They write:

If you happen to remorse not paying consideration in historical past class, that is for you

I found this podcast not too long ago, and I’m having fun with scrolling down and simply randomly listening to episodes. I really like the big variety of subjects, however have a suggestion. I simply listened to the Christmas Meals one, and there was no point out of COQUITO which is essentially the most scrumptious variation of eggnog made in Puerto Rico. That brings me to the purpose that you would write so many episodes about that small island. Thanks once more for arising with this podcast. Don’t you stop!

Thanks, Jprats! There’s a superb motive why I by no means talked about COQUITO in that episode. That’s as a result of I’ve by no means heard of it earlier than. I may be heading to Puerto Rico later this 12 months, and if I’m there, I’ll actually inquire about it.

Additionally, there will definitely be episodes about Puerto Rico in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.

Keep in mind, in the event you go away a overview or ship me a boostagram, you can also have it learn on the present.

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