Opening of Heyerdahl's tour. Brief biography of Tour Heyerdahl. Travel to Easter Island

“Scientists hide behind the term
to hide from people that they don’t know the answer..."

Thor Heyerdahl

Norwegian geographer (trained), traveler and anthropologist.

His mother worked in an anthropological museum, and young Tour created a small museum in the house, in which the main exhibit was a viper...

In the 30s Thor Heyerdahl he and his wife spent more than a year in almost primitive conditions on the Marquesas Islands.

In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl and further 5 his colleagues, testing the scientific hypothesis about the possibility of ancient navigators conquering ocean spaces, sailed 6920 kilometers across the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki raft. Thus, indirect evidence was obtained about the possibility of ancient contacts between South America and Polynesia...

In 1955-1956 Thor Heyerdahl organized a Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island to conduct experiments to study the technology of making and installing the famous moai statues.

“Then Heyerdahl, true to the idea of ​​the important role of long-distance migrations, set out to prove that the Egyptians could have reached South America and taken part in the formation of the pre-Columbian civilizations of America - the Incas and Aztecs. He decided to cross the Atlantic on the papyrus boat "Ra" (with the technology of the ancient Egyptians) from North Africa. The first attempt in 1969, after covering 4,500 km, ended in crash, the second the next year was a success - “Ra II”, after 57 days of travel, sailed to Barbados in the West Indies. So Heyerdahl also had a hand in reviving Elliot Smith's idea. At this time, Heyerdahl became interested in the history of the Old World. In 1969, he and half of his Ra team, between both trips to Ra, visited me on an expedition near Novocherkassk, where I excavated mounds with pit burials, which Gimbutas then declared to be Proto-Indo-European. Tur wanted to look at the Proto-Indo-Europeans with his own eyes. According to my ideas, he saw only Aryans (proto-Indo-Iranians). But the local authorities greeted him with pomp; the head of the region was very worried and began his welcoming speech with the words: “Dear Mr. Her Tuyerdahl!” Such mistakes are contagious. All subsequent speakers paused before the name and pronounced it with increased clarity: "Tour!!! Heyerdahl!!!" In the 1970s On the reed boat Tigris, Heyerdahl set off on a 9,980-kilometer journey along rivers from Iraq to the Indian Ocean to prove that the Sumerians could have passed this route 5,000 years ago. The war in Ethiopia prevented the completion of this expedition. All of Thor Heyerdahl's publications are extremely romantic and are read avidly and with admiration. But, while proving by their very implementation that such journeys were possible, they do not prove one thing - that these expeditions actually took place. To believe that a statement of possibility is a sufficient historical explanation and justification is possibilism, which most historians reject as logically erroneous. Only one book by Heyerdahl, published in 1952, presents the evidence he collected on 821 pages. This is American Indians in the Pacific. The theory behind the Kon-Tiki expedition." Reviews of scientists about this book are as soberingly critical as the responses to his other books are full of admiration. Critics find in it only random coincidences of words, individual similarities of things despite the complete divergence of the entire culture, legends that can be interpreted in different ways. Conflicting facts are omitted, the material is poorly organized, and there is a lot of repetition. Everything gives the impression of rough notes thrown together and published. As for the content of the book (and criticism), currents make it easier to swim from the Asian continent to the east than from America to the west, and indeed, food plants taro, coconut, banana, breadfruit, as well as animals, penetrated into Oceania from Asia - domestic pig. Sweet potatoes and squash may indeed indicate contact between Polynesia and the Americas, but such contact does not necessarily involve migration.”

Klein L.S. , History of archaeological thought in 2 volumes, Volume 1, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University Publishing House, 2011, p. 572-573.

“On the Pacific island of Easter there are cyclopean statues that, it would seem, could not have been erected by the primitive tribe inhabiting the island in our days. Can we hypothesize that these statues were erected by aliens from another planet? Of course we can. However, being within the framework of a rational approach, we have the right to accept such an explanation only after all the simpler - “earthly” - hypotheses have been exhausted. Thor Heyerdahl, who made a successful attempt to install the Easter statue using only those means that are now at the disposal of the local aborigines, acted strictly within the framework "Occam's razors", although I probably haven’t thought about it.”

Eskov K.Yu., Amazing paleontology: the history of the Earth and life on it, Publishing House NC ENAS, 2007, p. 20.

THE STORY OF THOOR HEYERDAHL

Toman I.B.

The famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) lived in the 20th century, when, it would seem, there was no place left on earth where man had not set foot. And yet his discoveries are no less impressive than the discoveries of navigators of past eras, for he wandered not so much in space as in time, and in its depths he discovered worlds whose existence no one knew.

The main idea that inspired Thor Heyerdahl throughout his long life was to prove the high level of culture of peoples whom complacent Europeans were accustomed to consider “primitive.” He wanted to prove that their history is no less ancient and no less rich in events and achievements in the field of spiritual and material life than European culture.

Since 1937, Thor Heyerdahl has been studying the origins of the population of Polynesia and put forward a bold hypothesis that these islands were inhabited by people from South America. To prove it, in 1947, he and five companions sailed on the Kon-Tiki raft, built on the model of ancient Peruvian rafts.

Kon-Tiki (that is, the Sun - Tiki) is the name of the legendary divine leader of one of the disappeared peoples of South America, about whom the Incas spoke. Expelled from their land by enemies, they sailed away in an unknown direction, and no one heard from them again. Only the majestic ruins in the area of ​​Lake Titicaca reminded of this once great vanished civilization. But did she really disappear without a trace? In Polynesia, Thor Heyerdahl, talking with local residents, learned that their ancestors had sailed here from overseas a long time ago, and also that the first ancestor and supreme leader of the Polynesians was called Tiki, that is, the same as the legendary leader of the mysterious inhabitants of South America . He also found other evidence of the relationship between the two peoples: in particular, sculptures depicting gods had a lot in common. However, the collected facts contradicted one seemingly indisputable argument: the ancient peoples could not cross the ocean on their fragile rafts. This was considered an axiom, and it was Thor Heyerdahl who questioned it. The ancient peoples, he believed, were brave seafarers, and their capabilities were much greater than what Europeans traditionally believed.

The expedition traveled from Callano (Peru) to the Tuamotu Islands (Polynesia), using the system of sea currents and winds that prevail in this area of ​​the Pacific Ocean. Thus, by reincarnating as a man from a distant era, Thor Heyerdahl proved the truth of his theory. He described his journey in the world famous book “Journey to Kon-Tiki”. Soon after its publication, it was translated into Russian and published several times in our country in huge editions. It was especially popular among teenagers, who thanks to it learned not only the history and culture of distant exotic countries, but also, to one degree or another, acquired a number of important life guidelines. And indeed: Thor Heyerdahl’s book has not only educational and cognitive, but also educational significance. It teaches purposefulness and perseverance, a calm attitude towards deprivation and adversity, but, most importantly, it shows the intrinsic value of the culture of every era and every people. The world is infinitely diverse and beautiful, and its beauty is open to everyone who frees himself from prejudices and a priori judgments and opens his heart to the new and unknown.

And one more thing: the book “Journey to Kon-Tiki,” despite the scrupulous description of the expedition and preparations for it, various scientific theories and one’s own research, is filled with true poetry. This is evidenced by the following passage: “Coal-black waves rose from all sides, myriads of stars shone above us. The world was simple - stars and night. Suddenly it didn't matter at all whether it was 1947 AD or before. You lived and felt life with heightened brightness. It seemed that a small but immeasurably rich world, the center of which was the raft, had existed since the beginning of time and would continue to exist indefinitely. We realized that life was full for people long before our age of technology; it was in many ways even fuller and richer for them than the life of modern man. Time and evolution ceased to exist for us. All this was real and what mattered always existed and will exist. We felt like we were in the very depths of history; pitch black darkness and myriads of stars reigned around us.”

In 1953, Thor Heyerdahl led an archaeological expedition to the Galapagos Islands and discovered traces of an ancient civilization there. In 1955-1956 he conducted archaeological research on the Easter Islands, Rapa Iti and the Marquesas and found out that they had been inhabited as early as the 4th century.

In the 1960s, the great traveler became interested in the history of navigation in Ancient Egypt and again resorted to an already proven method in his research. To confirm new theories, he looked not only for historical sources; he reincarnated as an ancient man, merged soul and body with those whom he wanted to know, and proved again and again that the possibilities of man, no matter what era he lived in and no matter what nation he belonged to, are truly limitless. In 1969, Thor Heyerdahl made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean on the papyrus boat "Ra", named after the ancient Egyptian sun god, but the following year he finally realized his plan. On the same boat "Ra-2" he covered the distance from Morocco to America.

In 1977, Thor Heyerdahl led an expedition to the Indian Ocean on the reed boat Tigris. In a letter sent to the United Nations, the travelers wrote: “We took a journey into the past to study the seaworthiness of a ship built according to ancient Sumerian models. But it was also a journey into the future, to show that people striving for common survival can coexist peacefully even in the smallest of spaces. We are eleven people, representing countries with different political systems. Together we traveled more than six thousand kilometers on a small raft made of fragile stems and ropes. In cramped conditions, in complete mutual understanding and friendship, shoulder to shoulder, we fought against storms and calms, constantly remaining faithful to the UN ideal: cooperation for the sake of common survival.”

Unfortunately, the peaceful coexistence of people of different nationalities and beliefs on a small boat did not reflect the situation in the world. A number of countries created all sorts of obstacles for the crew, many ports were closed to them, and sometimes travelers were accompanied by escorts of warships and aircraft. As a result, the crew decided to stop the journey and burn the boat.

A participant in the expeditions on “Ra” and “Ra-2” and on “Tigris” was our compatriot, host of the TV show “Cinema Travel Club” Yuri Aleksandrovich Senkevich (1937-2003). At that time, he was an employee of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, worked on issues of space medicine and participated in expeditions as a doctor.

Norwegians honor the memory of their great compatriot. In Oslo, on the Bygdeyule peninsula, there is the Thor Heyerdahl Museum, the main exhibits of which are the Kon-Tiki raft and the papyrus boat Ra-2, as well as a giant statue from Easter Island. Nearby is the Maritime Museum and the museum of the famous Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), and a little further away is the Viking ship museum. Thus, Thor Heyerdahl appears as a continuer of the centuries-old traditions of Norwegian sailors.

Thor Heyerdahl's discoveries played a significant role in the development of extreme tourism. Thanks to his travels, previously little-known lands begin to attract many fans of active recreation and vivid impressions. However, not only discoveries and travels, but also the personality of Thor Heyerdahl had and continues to influence his contemporaries and descendants.

He was able to clearly prove: the distant ancestors of today's man were not primitive creatures. They were wonderful projectors and designers, they traveled and crossed seas, oceans, continents, thanks to which they interacted with each other.

Young researcher-zoologist

Thor Heyerdahl was born on October 6, 1914 in the small Norwegian town of Larvik. His parents were quite wealthy and respected people in the city - his father owned a brewery, and his mother was an employee of the anthropological museum. And although there were seven children in the family, each of them received enough attention from their parents and their care. Thus, Tur’s mother was involved in his education, and already at a young age the guy was familiar with Darwin’s anthropological theory, and his father organized trips to Europe.

Among Tur's many childhood hobbies was a love of nature. As a child, he even tried to organize his own museum at home. It is not known for certain what exhibits his exposition consisted of, but its “highlight” was a stuffed viper, which was proudly shown to frequent guests in the Heyerdahl house as part of a short excursion.

The study of the flora and fauna of our planet almost ended fatally for Tur - one day he almost drowned in a river, and, having escaped, he acquired a fear of water throughout his childhood. Young Heyerdahl could not even imagine that he would go down in human history thanks to his voyages in the open ocean on a raft!

When 19-year-old Thor entered the University of Oslo in 1933, in order to gain knowledge in the field of geography and zoology, the future scientist met with the outstanding traveler Bjorn Kraepelin. This meeting played an important role in Heyerdahl's life: Bjorn introduced the young student to his collection of objects from the island of Tahiti and numerous books about the history of peoples. The tour was amazed by the knowledge gained, and a desire arose in him to understand the culture of little-known peoples even more deeply. This predetermined his future.

Paradise Island Fatu Hiva

After completing his studies, two incredibly important events occur in the life of Thor Heyerdahl: the young scientist finally married his beloved woman, Liv Coucheron-Thorpe, with whom he was in love since the beginning of his studies, and he also leaves his native land for important scientific research and travels to the islands of Polynesia . The wife went with Heyerdahl, and this business trip became a real one for the couple in love.

The purpose of the Tour was to investigate the causes of the emergence of certain animal species on the remote islands of Polynesia. For this, the scientist, together with his wife, went to Tahiti through the Panama Canal. Here the couple spent a month living in the hut of a local leader, who introduced the newcomers to the life and culture of the tribe. Fascinated by the wild, untouched nature and unusual culture that they sought to explore, the Heyerdahl couple went to the isolated island of Fatu Hiva.

Life, devoid of the benefits of modernity, not burdened by the noise of the city, was very much to the liking of Tur and Liv. The newlyweds lived like Adam and Eve in complete harmony with nature, enjoying its gifts and not remembering that another life existed somewhere - everything around seemed complete and natural. For a whole year, Heyerdahl and his wife lived on a paradise island, but soon the measured and quiet life came to an end: Tur fell ill and needed the help of a qualified doctor, and Liv was pregnant. After an unforgettable vacation, the Heyerdahls returned to civilization.

The war that invaded the scientist's plans

Returning to Norway, Thor became a father and published a book about his journey called In Search of Paradise. The year spent on the islands of Polynesia radically changed the scientist’s views on science in general. His desire to study animals was supplanted by the desire to study people and their history: a number of theories formed in Tur’s head, and he wanted to confirm them with scientific facts.

So, the researcher suggested that the ancient Incas somehow swam across the ocean and settled the islands of Polynesia. To substantiate this hypothesis, Heyerdahl went to Canada, but no facts could be found to prove his assumption.

The anthropologist's plans were disrupted by the Second World War, during which Tour was not going to sit out - like a real man and patriot, he went to the front. During the difficult war years, Heyerdahl managed to travel, take part in battles and receive the rank of lieutenant. And at the end of the war, the researcher had a detailed plan for a scientific experiment that would prove the correctness of his theory.

Travel on the Kon-Tiki

Thor Heyerdahl decides to build a raft according to the drawings of the ancient Incas and cross the ocean on it. The scientific community laughed in the scientist’s face, proving the impossibility of the idea, but the desperate anthropologist was completely confident in the success of the experiment. Tour, along with five other travelers and scientists, arrived in Peru, where, using old diagrams, drawings and based on many legends and stories, brave explorers build a balsa wood raft.

The Kon-Tiki raft, named after the sun god, endured all the vicissitudes of a long journey of 8,000 km and landed on the Tuamotu island, crossing the Pacific Ocean. 101 days were full of discoveries and incredible adventures, and a close-knit team of scientists proved that a person can not only survive in conditions of complete discomfort, but also find mutual understanding and friendship.

Returning home, Thor Heyerdahl wrote the book “Kon-Tiki,” which was an incredible success all over the world, and the documentary film that the scientist filmed while swimming won an Oscar in 1952. But the main achievement of the expedition was not recognition and glory, but proof of the possibility of transatlantic crossings of the ancient Incas.

The failure of "Ra" and the triumph of "Ra II"

Heyerdahl's research did not end there. The anthropologist decides to do a similar thing in order to establish whether the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt could travel across the ocean on their ships. To do this, the scientist and a team of like-minded people build a ship from papyrus called "Ra", but the boat did not live up to the trust of its creator and broke into two parts in the middle of the journey.

Thor Heyerdahl did not despair of such a failure and, taking into account design errors, built the Ra II boat, which successfully sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and landed on the coast of Barbados. The researcher described his impressions from the trip and his discoveries in the book “Expedition to Ra.” The researchers did a great job and, in addition to justifying Heyerdahl's theory, collected samples of pollution in the ocean, after which they provided them to the UN, and also proved that even people of different nationalities, beliefs and religious views can exist peacefully on a small piece of land if they are united by a common goal.

Until his very old age, the great explorer Thor Heyerdahl did not give up scientific activity and made many discoveries, but it was his voyages that brought him universal fame. Purposeful and enthusiastic, he knew no rest either in his research activities or in his personal life: he had five children and was married three times. Having made a colossal contribution to the development of scientific thought and going down in history as the most outstanding Norwegian of the twentieth century, Thor Heyerdahl died surrounded by his family, at the age of 87, from a serious illness - a brain tumor.

Heyerdahl Tour

Norwegian traveler, ethnographer, archaeologist, anthropologist

To confirm his theory of the initial settlement of the islands of Polynesia from America in 1947, he sailed with his crew on the Kon-Tiki raft from Peru to Polynesia. In 1969 and 1970 sailed on papyrus boats "Ra" from Africa to the islands of Central America, in 1977–1978. – on the reed boat “Tigris” along the route El-Qurna (Iraq) – the mouth of the Indus – Djibouti.

Brief chronology

1933-36 studying at the University of Oslo at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, specializing in geography and zoology; studying the cultural history of Polynesia

1936 expedition to Polynesia to the island of Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas archipelago; the origin of the theory of the initial settlement of the Polynesian islands from America

1938 publication of the first book by the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl, “In Search of Paradise”

1947 expedition "Kon-Tiki", based on the results of which the book "Journey to the Kon-Tiki" was written

1955-56 archaeological expedition to Easter Island, as a result of which the book “Aku-Aku” was written

1969-70 an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean on papyrus boats "Ra" and "Ra-II"; a book “Expeditions to Ra” was written about the expeditions and a documentary film was made

1977 expedition on the reed boat "Tigris"

1983-84 study of burial mounds found in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean; Based on the results of the research, the publication of the book “The Maldivian Mystery”

1991 study of the Guimar pyramids on the island of Tenerife; Based on the results of the research, the publication of the book “In Search of Odin. In the footsteps of our past"

1999 Thor Heyerdahl was recognized as the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century.

Life story

Thor Heyerdahl was born on October 6, 1914 in the Norwegian town Larvik. His father was a brewer. The mother ran the household. She was a strict, pedantic lady. In the spirit of the same strict pedantry, she raised her son. The daily routine was almost military: at the same hours get up, go to the toilet, exercise, breakfast, work and study, lunch, etc. Moreover, this routine was strictly observed. So, one day a fire started in the house. Everyone had to urgently get out into the street. But since little Tur was sitting on the potty, the mother did not move until the baby completed the job. And only then did mother and son leave the house with dignity. This is what a real, and not a “Nordic” character invented by the Germans is. There have always been many such people in Norway, and in this sense we can say that Thor Heyerdahl was born into a very ordinary family. True, such “ordinariness” is worth a lot if, as a result of the upbringing received in this family, honesty, straightforwardness, love of order, determination and courage become the most ordinary qualities for a person, and he perceives their absence in others as an illness or perversion. Thor Heyerdahl was just such an ordinary person, that is, honest, straightforward, decisive and courageous.

Since childhood, Tur dreamed of distant countries and travels. What attracted him most was his travels in the northern latitudes. As a high school student, Tur built a snow house far outside the city (like an Eskimo igloo) and spent several days there with a friend and a dog. He always remembered that his country was the homeland not only of the Vikings, who were ahead of Columbus in the discovery of America, but also of great scientific travelers - Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen.

But the Norwegian’s first real journey was a family expedition to the edges of the southern seas - Polynesia. After graduating from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the young geographer and zoologist Heyerdahl, disillusioned with academic science, together with his young wife Liv, goes to Fatu Hiva island of the Marquesas archipelago. There they lived, away from civilization and white people, for a whole year. During this year, Thor Heyerdahl, having become acquainted with local myths and legends, came to the conclusion that, quite possibly, the ancestors of the natives came to Polynesia from South America. The directions of the winds and ocean currents convinced him of this. They, according to the young researcher, were the reason for the origin of life on the islands.

For Heyerdahl as a scientist, the main criterion of truth was experiment. How can we test the hypothesis about the settlement of Polynesia by ancient American Indians? Only by sailing himself at the behest of the waves and winds, on a ship that was as similar as possible to the antediluvian examples. However, Heyerdahl managed to implement his plan only after the end of World War II. And while the war was going on, the descendant of the Vikings and at the same time a lieutenant in the US Army had to travel exclusively in accordance with military orders.

After the war, namely in 1947, Heyerdahl's scientific experiment was carried out. Used as an antediluvian ship raft "Kon-Tiki" made of balsa wood, which was built like the ships of the ancient seafarers. The choice of material for the raft was determined not only by its unusually low density (about the same as modern foam plastic), but also by Heyerdahl’s desire to refute the established opinion that traveling people on South American balsa rafts across the ocean, from Peru to Polynesia, was technically impossible. Thus, the expedition to Kon-Tiki solved, in addition to the historical, geographical and ethnographic, a purely technical problem.

The expedition started from Peru Callao port. 7 brave sailors set off along the route that, according to local legends, was taken by the once great leader Kon-Tiki, expelled from Peru by the Inca conquerors. The voyage lasted more than three months, or rather a hundred days. These were 100 days that did not shock the world like the 10 days of the seventeenth year, but, on the contrary, forced it to become quiet and wait with bated breath for new reports from newspapers and radio. On the hundred and first day, a balsa raft under sail with a stylized image of the legendary Kon-Tiki and with bearded white people on board landed on the shore of the Polynesian Raroia Islands.

This was Thor Heyerdahl's first victory. After all, before his intervention, scientists considered the ancestors of the islanders to be aliens from India and China, from the Middle and Far East, from Egypt, Japan, even from Atlantis!

In 1955-1956, Thor Heyerdahl organized Norwegian archaeological expedition to Easter Island. Heyerdahl, along with professional archaeologists, spent several months on Easter Island exploring a number of important archaeological sites. Central to the project were experiments in carving, dragging and installing the famous moai statues, as well as excavations at such high points as Orongo and Poike.

Thor Heyerdahl wanted to test the hypothesis according to which the famous statues, when installed by the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island, moved in a vertical position, that is, they seemed to “walk” on their own. Thor Heyerdahl managed to show the whole world how it was done.

A local legend claimed that these colossal statues depicting the leaders of the “short-eared” tribe, from the quarry where they were sculptured, to the place of “rooting” almost “under their own power”, under the powerful influence of “mana” - a magical force that was created by a strong-willed by the efforts of ancient sorcerers. In the sixties, when a passion for magic and “extrasensory perception”, as well as the teachings of E.P., became fashionable. Blavatsky and E.I. Roerich, this version began to be supported by some “scientific” journalists and other representatives of the educated public. Of course, Thor Heyerdahl was not one of the adherents of these teachings. As always, he decided to experiment.

To do this, he chose one statue lying on the ground and used a method to move it that had long been known to loaders and riggers all over the world, as well as ordinary citizens who sometimes have to move cabinets and other bulky furniture on their own. This classic method allows you to turn large and massive objects over fairly long distances. Modern islanders (“short-eared”) acted as riggers under the leadership of the foreman, “Señor Kon-Tiki.” It took strong ropes, logs, stones and poles, as well as coordinated actions and thoughtful teams of the scientist - and now a medium-sized statue, which had lain for 300 years, took a vertical position, stood as if thinking, and - slowly, waddled, moved to its destination, turning with an expressive nosed face, now in one direction, now in the other. Cameramen filmed this scene so that the entire enlightened world could see how the giant moai, the statues of the island of Rapa Nui, moved “at their own pace.”

Of course, Heyerdahl's experience with the movement of the long-eared idol did not pretend to explain other burning mysteries of antiquity - such as the construction of the Baalbek veranda from stone blocks, a thousand times more massive in comparison with the modest Rapanui statue, the construction of the great pyramids of Giza and other colossi of ancient architecture. But the scientific and historical significance of this experiment is important, if only for the simple reason that in subsequent publications about Paski Island and its statues, the mysterious “mana” of Rapa Nui sorcerers, the participation of aliens and other pseudo-scientific components began to occupy less and less space.

The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports (“Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the Eastern Pacific Ocean”); Heyerdahl later supplemented them with a third, “The Art of Easter Island.” This expedition laid the foundation for many archaeological surveys that continue on the island to this day. T. Heyerdahl's popular book on this topic, “Aku-Aku,” became another international bestseller.

In Easter Island: The Mystery Solved (1989), Heyerdahl proposed a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on local evidence and archaeological research, he argued that the island was originally inhabited by the “long-eared” from South America, and the “short-eared” arrived there from Polynesia only in the middle of the 16th century; they may have arrived on the island on their own, or they may have been brought as labor. According to Heyerdahl's theory, something happened on the island between its discovery by Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen in 1722 and James Cook's visit there in 1774. If Roggeveen met whites, Indians, and Polynesians on the island, living in relative harmony and prosperity, then by Cook’s arrival the population had already decreased significantly, and it consisted mainly of Polynesians living in need.

In 1969 and 1970, Thor Heyerdahl built two papyrus boats and tried cross the Atlantic Ocean, choosing the coast of Morocco in Africa as the starting point of his voyage.

The first boat, designed according to drawings and models of boats of Ancient Egypt and named "Ra", was built by specialists with Lake Chad(Republic of Chad) from reeds obtained from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, and entered the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of Morocco. After a few weeks "Ra" began to bend due to design flaws, plunge with its stern into the water and, in the end, broke into pieces. The crew was forced to abandon the ship. Next year another boat, "Ra-II", modified taking into account the experience of the previous voyage, was built by craftsmen from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and also set sail from Morocco, this time crowned with complete success. The boat has reached Barbados, thereby demonstrating that ancient sailors could make transatlantic crossings under sail, using the Canary Current. Despite the fact that the purpose of the "Ra" voyage was simply to confirm the seaworthiness of ancient ships built from light reeds, the success of the "Ra-II" expedition was regarded as evidence that even in prehistoric times, Egyptian navigators, intentionally or accidentally, could travel to the New World.

A book was written about these expeditions "Expeditions to "Ra"" and a documentary film was created.

In 1977, T. Heyerdahl built another reed boat, the Tigris, whose task was to demonstrate that trade and migration contacts could exist between Mesopotamia and the Indus civilization represented by modern Pakistan. The Tigris was built in Iraq and set sail with an international crew across the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and from there to the Red Sea. After about 5 months of sailing, the Tigris, which retained its seaworthiness, was burned in Djibouti on April 3, 1978 in protest against the wars that broke out in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.

Heyerdahl Expedition on the reed boat "Tigris", woven from reeds in the image of ancient Sumerian ships, confirmed that Mesopotamian reeds are also suitable for boat building, like papyrus, it only needs to be collected in a certain season when it is most water-resistant. The Sumerian boat builders, who on similar “tigrises” rose from the mouth of the Indus and the Red Sea, probably knew this. Unfortunately, the Tigris crew was unable to fully implement the planned program: when the ship found itself in the war zone that was then tearing apart the Middle East, and was detained by military authorities, the crew set fire to their ship in protest.

In 1983-1984, Thor Heyerdahl also examined mounds found in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Thor Heyerdahl's expedition to the Maldives its goal was to confirm that long before the Arabs and Vasco da Gama, mysterious ancient sailors visited these places, leaving behind stone sculptures of unknown bearded people, long-eared, like the idols on Easter Island.

In 1991, Heyerdahl researched Pyramids of Guimar on the island of Tenerife and declared that they could not be just mountains of cobblestones, but were indeed pyramids. He also gave opinions on the astronomical orientation of the pyramids. Heyerdahl put forward a theory according to which the Canary Islands in ancient times were a transit point on the route between America and the Mediterranean.

Heyerdahl's latest project is described in his book "In search of Odin. In the footsteps of our past". Heyerdahl began excavations in Azov, a city near the Sea of ​​Azov. He tried to find traces of the ancient civilization of Asgard, corresponding to the texts of the Ynglinga Saga, authored by Snorri Sturluson. This saga tells of a chief named Odin leading a tribe called the Æsir north through Saxony to the island of Funen in Denmark, and finally settling in Sweden. There, according to the text of Snorri Sturluson, he made such an impression on the local residents with his varied knowledge that they began to worship him after his death as a god. Heyerdahl suggested that the story told in the Ynglinga Saga was based on real facts.

This project caused sharp criticism in Norway from historians, archaeologists and linguists and was considered pseudoscientific. Heyerdahl was accused of selective use of sources and a complete lack of scientific methodology in his work. In this book, Heyerdahl bases his arguments on the similarities between names in Norse mythology and the geographical names of the Black Sea region - for example, Azov and Ases, Udins and Odin, Tyr and Turkey. Philologists and historians reject these parallels as accidental, as well as chronological errors: for example, the city of Azov received its name 1,000 years after, according to Heyerdahl, the Aesir, the inhabitants of Asgard, settled there. The bitter controversy surrounding the Quest for Odin project was in many ways typical of the relationship between Heyerdahl and academia. His theories rarely received scientific recognition, while Heyerdahl himself rejected scientific criticism and concentrated on publishing his theories in popular literature intended for the general public.

Heyerdahl argued that the Udins, an ethnic minority in Azerbaijan, were descendants of the Scandinavians. In the last two decades of his life, he traveled to Azerbaijan several times and visited the Kish Church. His theory regarding Odin was rejected by scientists, but was accepted as fact by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway.

In 2001, Heyerdahl came to Russia and, speaking to scientists and journalists in Rostov-on-Don, he stunned and at the same time inspired them with the statement: “Perhaps the ancestors of the Scandinavians came from the Azov-Caucasus region!” The tireless researcher relied on the texts of the famous medieval historian Snorre Sturlusson, which say that over 2,000 years ago, the mighty leader Ogden moved to the North from the Caucasus with his warriors-aces. This immediately brings to mind the name of Odin, the supreme god of the Scandinavians and leader of the heroic tribe of the Aesir. “If Ogden and Odin are the same person, then isn’t the name of the city of Azov and the Sea of ​​Azov derived from the name of the Aesir people?” – the scientist wondered, starting archaeological excavations in the middle of the city blocks of Azov, and explained to journalists “I don’t have to prove that I’m right, that Snorre described real events. I just want to know the truth about what the world was like thousands of years ago, where people came from and where they were moving.”

Heyerdahl was an activist in green politics. Heyerdahl's world fame was the reason for his meetings with famous politicians. He even gave a presentation on the importance of environmental protection to the last head of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. Heyerdahl participated annually in the Alternative Nobel Prize as a member of the jury. In 1994, Heyerdahl and actress Liv Ullman were chosen by the Norwegians to perform the honorary duty. opening of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and appeared before a television audience of more than a billion people. In 1999, compatriots recognized Thor Heyerdahl as the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century. He was awarded numerous medals and prizes, and was also awarded 11 honorary degrees from universities in America and Europe.

Heyerdahl died at the age of 87 from a brain tumor at the Colla Micheri estate in the Italian town Alassio, surrounded by his family. In his homeland, a monument was erected to him during his lifetime, and a museum was opened in his house.

Biography

early years

Thor Heyerdahl was born in the small town of Larvik in southern Norway to Thor and Alison Ljung Heyerdahl. My father owned a brewery. His mother worked in an anthropological museum, and young Tour became acquainted with Darwin's theory of evolution quite early. From his childhood, Heyerdahl was interested in zoology. In the house where Tour lived in those years, he created a small museum in which the main exhibit was a viper.

As a child, Tur was terribly afraid of water, because he almost drowned twice. As he later recalled, if at the age of 17 someone had told him that he would sail on the ocean on a fragile boat for several months, he would have considered that person crazy. He was able to part with this fear only at the age of 22, when, having accidentally fallen into the river, he found the strength to swim out on his own.

As a true patriot, he wanted to fight the enemy and, eventually moving to the United States, enlisted in the army. After graduating from a sabotage radio school in England, Heyerdahl and his comrades from the so-called “I Group” were prepared for deployment to Norway, occupied by the German army. With the rank of lieutenant, he went on an American liner as part of a convoy to Murmansk. At the end of the campaign, the convoy was attacked by German submarines, which was repulsed with the help of Soviet ships. Upon arrival in Kirkenes, Heyerdahl's group was supposed to maintain radio contact between the headquarters of the Norwegian detachment and London. This is where the end of the war found him.

Expedition "Kon-Tiki"

The Kon-Tiki demonstrated that a primitive raft, using the Humboldt Current and a favorable wind, could indeed sail westward across the Pacific Ocean with relative ease and safety. Thanks to the keel system and sail, the raft proved its high maneuverability. In addition, fish accumulated in fairly large quantities between the balsa logs, which suggests that ancient sailors could have used it to quench their thirst in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Inspired by the Kon-Tiki voyage, others repeated this journey on their rafts. Thor Heyerdahl's book "Kon-Tiki" has been translated into 66 languages. A documentary film about the expedition, filmed by Heyerdahl during the voyage, received an Oscar in 1951.

Meanwhile, direct evidence of contacts between South America and Polynesia is also known: the most significant is the fact that the South American sweet potato is the main food product in almost all of Polynesia. Heyerdahl experimentally proved that neither the sweet potato nor the coconut could reach the Polynesian islands by swimming. Regarding the linguistic argument, Heyerdahl gave an analogy according to which he prefers to believe that African Americans came from Africa, judging by the color of their skin, and not from England, as one might assume from their speech.

A book “Expeditions to Ra” was written about these expeditions and a documentary film was created.

“The similarities between the early civilizations of Egypt and Mexico are not limited to the pyramids... Both Mexico and Egypt had a highly developed system of hieroglyphic writing... Scientists have noted the similarities in fresco painting in temples and tombs, similar temple designs with elaborate megalithic colonnades. It is pointed out that when constructing slab vaults, architects on both sides of the Atlantic did not know the art of constructing a real arch. Attention is drawn to the existence of cyclopean-sized stone human figures, amazing astronomical knowledge and a highly developed calendar system in Mexico and Egypt. Scientists compare the amazingly perfect practice of trephination of the human skull, characteristic of the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Mexico and Peru, and also point to a similar Egyptian-Peruvian custom of mummification. These and other numerous evidences of similarities of cultures, taken together, could support the theory that once or more than once ships from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea crossed the Atlantic Ocean and brought the foundations of civilization to the natives of Mexico.

In addition to the main aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew that included representatives of different races, nationalities, religions and political beliefs in order to demonstrate how on such a small floating island people can cooperate fruitfully and live in peace. In addition, the expedition collected samples of ocean pollution and submitted its report to the United Nations.

Crew "Ra"

Ra-II crew

Boat "Tigris"

Heyerdahl's latest project is described in his book In Search of Odin. In the footsteps of our past." Heyerdahl began excavations in Azov, a city near the Sea of ​​Azov. He tried to find traces of the ancient civilization of Asgard, corresponding to the texts of the Ynglinga Saga, authored by Snorri Sturluson. This saga tells of a chief named Odin leading a tribe called the Æsir north through Saxony to the island of Funen in Denmark, and finally settling in Sweden. There, according to the text of Snorri Sturluson, he made such an impression on the local residents with his varied knowledge that they began to worship him after his death as a god (see also “House of Ynglings”, “Mythical Kings of Sweden”). Heyerdahl suggested that the story told in the Ynglinga Saga was based on real facts.

Subsequent years

Thor Heyerdahl's grave at Kolla Mikeri

In subsequent years, Heyerdahl was busy with many expeditions and archaeological projects. However, he remained best known for his sea travel by boat and his particular attention to issues of cultural diffusionism.

In 1991, the 77-year-old father of five Heyerdahl married for the third time. His chosen one was former Miss France 1954 Jacqueline Beer, who was 18 years younger than her husband. Having lived on the Italian Riviera for many years, Heyerdahl moved with his wife to Tenerife.

Heyerdahl died at the age of 87 from a brain tumor on the Colla Micheri estate in the Italian town of Alassio, surrounded by his family - his wife Jacqueline, sons Bjorn, Thor and daughters Marian and Bettina. In his homeland, a monument was erected to him during his lifetime, and a museum was opened in his house. On January 18, 2011, the modern frigate "Thor Heyerdahl" (F312), named in honor of the great traveler, entered the Norwegian Navy.

Followers

Heyerdahl's expeditions were spectacular events, and his heroic journeys on fragile boats captured people's imagination. Although much of his work was controversial in scientific circles, Heyerdahl undeniably raised public interest in ancient history and the achievements of various cultures and peoples around the world. He also showed that long-distance travel across the ocean was technically possible for Neolithic man. In fact, he was a great practitioner of experimental archaeology. Heyerdahl's books have served as a source of inspiration for several generations of readers. He introduced readers of all ages to the world of archeology and ethnography, making them attractive through his colorful travels. This Norwegian adventurer often broke the boundaries of ordinary consciousness. “Borders? - he asked. “I’ve never seen them, but I’ve heard that they exist in the minds of most people.”

In 1954, William Willis sailed alone from Peru to American Samoa on a small raft called the Seven Sisters.

In and years Eduard Ingrish (Czechoslovakia) repeated the Kon-Tiki expedition on the Kantuta rafts.

In 2006, the path of the Kon-Tiki was repeated by a crew of 6 people, which included Heyerdahl’s grandson Olav Heyerdahl. The expedition was called "Tangaroa" and was organized in memory of Thor Heyerdahl with the aim of making observations of the state of the environment in the Pacific Ocean. A film was made about this journey.

Criticism

Many of Thor Heyerdahl's theories, especially the theory about the peopling of Polynesia, have been criticized. Thus, Eric de Bishop believed that there was only a cultural exchange between the Polynesians and the population of South America, since the maritime technology of the Polynesians was superior to that of other peoples, which he himself proved by sailing on the Kaimiloa.

Miloslav Stingl called the “legend of brilliant blondes” very similar to “the theories that not so long ago brought humanity to the brink of disaster.”

Awards and honorary titles

Bibliography

• 1938 - På Jakt efter Paradiset - Hunt for Paradise (Russian translation of “In Search of Paradise”)
• 1948 - The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas (Russian translation of “Journey to the Kon-Tiki”)
• 1952 - American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition (Russian translation of “Thur Heyerdahl. Adventures of a Theory”, 1969)
• 1957 - Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island (Russian translation of “Aku-Aku. The Secret of Easter Island.”)
• 1968 - Sjøveier til Polynesia (Sea Routes to Polynesia, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968).
• 1970 - The Ra Expeditions (Russian translation of “Ra”)
• 1974 - FATU-HIVA (Back to Nature), (Russian translation of “Fatu Hiva: a return to nature”, 1978)
• 1978 - Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations (Russian translation of “Ancient Man and the Ocean”, 1982)
• 1979 - The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings ((Russian translation of “Tigris Expedition”)
• 1982 - “The Art of Easter Island”
• 1986 - The Maldive Mystery (Russian translation of “The Maldivian Mystery”