Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer who had a background in biology, zoology, botany and geography. He became famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. He wanted to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between different cultures. He also organized other expeditions, such as the Ra, the Tigris, the Easter Island, and the Maldives, to test his theories of cultural diffusion and ancient migrations. He wrote several books and made documentary films about his adventures, and received many awards and honors for his contributions to science, history and exploration. He founded the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, where his vessels and objects from his expeditions are displayed. He died in 2002 at the age of 87, after a long battle with a brain tumor.