Viking Star Art Collection

EXPLORERS’ LOUNGE |

EXPLORERS’ LOUNGE | DECK 7–8 THOR HEYERDAHL Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) was a Norwegian ethnographer and explorer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. He gained worldwide fame for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km across the Pacific Ocean on a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. After the Kon-Tiki success, Heyerdahl conducted similar expeditions with reed boats Ra I and II and Tigris. The expeditions were designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between separate cultures. With his spectacular expeditions and original theories, Heyerdahl was a controversial figure and an active participant in the debate about prehistoric culture contact and diffusion. His recreations of prehistoric voyages showed that early man had mastered sailing before the saddle and wheel were invented. His reputation as a scientist was consolidated through his archaeological excavations on the fabled, mysterious Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. Curiosity was Thor Heyerdahl’s driving force. 8

EXPLORERS’ LOUNGE | DECK 7–8 KON-TIKI Kon-Tiki was launched in 1947 by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002). The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends and archaeological evidence suggesting contact between South America and Polynesia. The raft was hand built in Peru, constructed from balsa wood and other native materials. Together with five fellow adventurers, Heyerdahl set sail from Peru on April 28, 1947, toward the Tuamotu Islands in French Polynesia. On August 7, 1947, after 101 days at sea, covering 4,300 nautical miles (4,948 mi or 7,964 km), the journey across the Pacific Ocean came to an end when the Kon-Tiki smashed into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands. 9