Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

expeditions brought experiments with reed ships and
between 1969 and 1970 he made two attempts to prove
that it was possible to sail across the Atlantic from Morocco
to Barbados in the papyrus boats Ra and Ra II; the second
voyage was successful, crossing 6100 km of ocean in
57 days. A third expedition followed in the reed boat Tigris
to prove the possible existence of ancient maritime links
between the civilizations around the Persian Gulf, the
Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
Heyerdahl’s practical approach also carried over into
his archaeological expeditions, including those to the
Galapagos Islands and Easter Island in the 1950s and
The Maldives in the early 1980s. His work on Easter Island
(now Rapa Nui) brought the island to the world’s attention,
turning it into a tourist destination and modernizing
and enriching the island’s economy. As with other
cultures Heyerdahl visited, including the Marsh Arabs
in Iraq, his work captured them at a point of transition
before modernization.
On an indirect level, his work changed how the West
regarded the technology of the ancient world and of the
native cultures of America and the Pacific. His findings
raised awareness of how other, oral-based cultures had
a history and practical knowledge overlooked, unknown
to or forgotten by modern man.
Heyerdahl’s concern over the pollution of the world’s
oceans grew out of his sailing experiments. In the 1970s
he became an influential spokesman in raising awareness
of the seas as a single, interconnected system and their
vital importance for the Earth.
The Kon-Tiki raft at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway. �
462 Thor Heyerdahl archives