What was the name of the swimming facility of the Heyerdahl expedition. Thor heyerdahl

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 at the anthropological museum, and the young Tur got acquainted with the Darwinian theory of evolution quite early. From childhood, Heyerdahl was interested in zoology. In the house where Tur lived in those years, he created a small museum in which the viper was the main exhibit.

As a child, Tur was terribly afraid of water, because he nearly drowned twice. As he later recalled, if at the age of 17 someone had told him that he would sail the ocean on a fragile boat for several months, he would have considered that person insane. 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, he 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 being thrown into Norway occupied by the German army. With the rank of lieutenant, he went to 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 to maintain radio contact between the headquarters of the Norwegian detachment and London. Here he found the end of the war.

Expedition "Kon-Tiki"

The Kon-Tiki demonstrated that a primitive raft, using the Humboldt current and a tailwind, could indeed cross the Pacific Ocean in a relatively simple and safe direction in a westerly direction. Thanks to the keel system and the sail, the raft proved its high maneuverability. In addition, between the balsa logs in quite in large numbers fish accumulated, and this suggests that ancient sailors could use it to quench their thirst in the absence of other sources of fresh water. Inspired by the sailing of the Kon-Tiki, others repeated this journey on their rafts. Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki has been translated into 66 languages. A documentary film about the expedition, filmed by Heyerdahl during the voyage, won an Oscar in 1951.

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

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

“The similarity between the early civilizations of Egypt and Mexico is not limited to the pyramids... Both in Mexico and Egypt there was a highly developed system of hieroglyphic writing... Scientists note the similarity of fresco painting in temples and tombs, similar designs of temples with skillful megalithic colonnades. It is pointed out that when constructing vaults from slabs, architects on both sides of the Atlantic did not know the art of building a real arch. Attention is drawn to the existence of cyclopean-sized stone human figures, to amazing astronomical knowledge and a highly developed calendar system in Mexico and Egypt. Scientists compare the amazingly perfect practice of trepanation 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 numerous other evidences of cultural similarity, taken together, could support the theory that once or more ships from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea crossed Atlantic Ocean and brought the foundations of civilization to the natives of Mexico."

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

Crew "Ra"

The crew of "Ra-II"

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 not far from the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. 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 says that a leader named Odin led a tribe called Ases, and led him north through Saxony to the island of Funen in Denmark, and finally settled in Sweden. There, according to the text of Snorri Sturluson, he made such an impression on local residents with their varied knowledge, that they began to worship him after his death as a god (see also "The House of the Ynglings", "The Mythical Kings of Sweden"). Heyerdahl suggested that the story told in the Ynglinga Saga is based on real facts.

Later years

Tomb of Thor Heyerdahl in Kolla Mikeri

In later years, Heyerdahl was busy with many expeditions and archaeological projects. However, he remained best known for his sea travels in boats and special attention to questions of cultural diffusionism.

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

Heyerdahl died at the age of 87 from a brain tumor on the Colla-Mikeri estate in the Italian town of Alassio, surrounded by his family - his wife Jacqueline, sons Bjorn, Tour 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 after the great traveler, entered the Norwegian Navy.

Followers

Heyerdahl's expeditions were spectacular events, and his heroic journeys on fragile boats staggered the human imagination. Despite the fact that most of his work caused controversy 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. "Boundaries? he asked. “I have never seen them, but I have heard that they exist in the minds of most people.”

In 1954, William Willis sailed solo 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 Kantut rafts.

In 2006, the Kon-Tiki path 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 observing the state of the environment in the Pacific Ocean. A film was made about this trip.

Criticism

Many theories of Thor Heyerdahl, especially the theory of the settlement of Polynesia, have been criticized. So, Eric de Bishop believed that there was only a cultural exchange between the Polynesians and the population of South America, since the marine technology of the Polynesians surpassed the technology of other peoples, which he himself proved by sailing on the Kaimiloa.

Miloslav Stingl called the "legend of brilliant blondes" very similar to "theories that recently put humanity on the brink of disaster."

Awards and honorary titles

Bibliography

• 1938 - På Jakt efter Paradiset - Hunt for Paradise
• 1948 - The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas
• 1952 - American Indians in the Pacific: The Theory Behind the Kon-Tiki Expedition
• 1957 - 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 "Ra")
• 1974 - FATU-HIVA (Back to Nature), (Russian translation of "Fatu-Hiva: Return to Nature", 1978)
• 1978 - Early Man and the Ocean: The Beginning of Navigation and Seaborn Civilizations (Russian translation "Ancient Man and the Ocean", 1982)
• 1979 - The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings ((Russian translation "Tigris Expedition")
• 1982 - "The Art of Easter Island"
• 1986 - The Maldive Mystery (Russian translation of "The Maldivian Mystery"

He was able to clearly prove: the distant ancestors of today's man were not primitive creatures. They were wonderful projectors and designers, traveled and crossed the 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. So, Tur's mother was engaged in his education, and already at a young age the guy was familiar with the anthropological theory of Darwin, and his father organized trips to Europe.

Among Tour'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 its 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 - once he nearly drowned in a river, and, having escaped, acquired a fear of water for all his childhood. Young Heyerdahl could not even imagine that he would enter the history of mankind thanks to his voyages in open ocean on a raft!

When in 1933 the 19-year-old Tur entered the University of Oslo, in order to comprehend knowledge from 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 on the history of peoples. The tour was amazed by the knowledge gained, it gave rise to a desire to further understand the culture of little-known peoples. This predetermined his future.

Paradise Island Fatu Hiva

After completing his studies, two incredibly important events take place in the life of Thor Heyerdahl: the young scientist finally married his beloved woman Liv Coucheron-Thorpe, whom he had been in love with from 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 a couple in love.

The purpose of the Tour was to study the causes of the emergence of certain animal species on the remote islands of Polynesia. For this, the scientist, along with his wife, went to the Panama Canal and went to Tahiti. Here the couple spent a month living in the hut of the local leader, who introduced the newcomers to the life and culture of the tribe. Fascinated by the wild untouched nature and the 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, really liked Tur and Liv. The newlyweds lived like Adam and Eve in complete harmony with nature, rejoicing in its gifts and not remembering that another life exists somewhere - everything around seemed complete and natural. For a whole year, Heyerdahl and his wife lived on paradise island, but soon measured and quiet life the end came: Tur fell ill and needed the help of a qualified doctor, and Liv was pregnant. After unforgettable holiday The Heyerdahls have returned to civilization.

The war that invaded the scientist's plans

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

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

The anthropologist's plans were violated by the Second World War, during which the 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.

Journey 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 undertaking, 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, according to old schemes, drawings, and on the basis of many legends and stories, brave explorers are building 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 island of Tuamotu, breaking 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 the same in order to establish whether the inhabitants could ancient egypt travel across the ocean in their ships. To do this, a scientist with a team of like-minded people builds a papyrus vessel called "Ra", but the boat did not justify 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 crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed on the coast of Barbados. The researcher described the impressions of 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, they 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 the deepest old age great explorer Thor Heyerdahl did not leave scientific activity and made many discoveries, but it was his voyages that brought him general fame. Purposeful and enthusiastic, he did not know peace either in research 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 having gone down in history as the most outstanding Norwegian of the 20th century, Thor Heyerdahl died, surrounded by his family, at the age of 87, from a serious illness - a brain tumor.

Name: Thor Heyerdahl

Age: 87 years old

Place of Birth: Larvik, Vestfold, Norway

A place of death: Alassio, Liguria, Italy

Activity: Norwegian archaeologist, traveler and writer

Family status: was married to Jacqueline Beer

Thor Heyerdahl - Biography

The scientific world will never stop arguing about the emergence of great civilizations, since often one theory refutes another. Thor Heyerdahl preferred not to argue, but to act. According to the ancient "instructions" he built a ship and sailed on it thousands of miles across the ocean. If it reached the desired shore, the theory was considered proven.

Thor Heyerdahl - study

Finishing school, the young Tur had already determined his future - he would be a zoologist. The boy's mother worked in the anthropological museum, and he himself assembled a mini-zoo at home, with a viper as the main "exhibit". Admission in 1933 to the Faculty of Natural Geography of the University of Oslo was a logical continuation of his dream...

Thor Heyerdahl - on tropical islands

Already finishing his studies, the student Heyerdahl went to the remote islands of Polynesia. There he hoped to find out the origin of certain species of fauna. With him was his young wife Liv. Passing Tahiti, the couple landed on desert island Fatu Khiva. He reminded them of the Garden of Eden, where they felt like Adam and Eve. But the neighboring islands were inhabited by cannibal natives, and Tour did not part with a gun.

However, the trouble did not come from savages, but from a tropical infection. The couple's legs became covered with ulcers, and the couple was forced to apply for medical care on the island of Hiva Oa. Here Heyerdahl met compatriot Henry Lee, who told him about stone statues in the local jungle. Where they came from, no one knew. Lee also said that there are similar statues in Colombia, 7 thousand (!) Kilometers to the west.

The tour was intrigued: how could this happen? The most logical explanation is that people from South America simply sailed to the Marquesas Islands. The conjecture was strengthened by the fact that the islanders called one of the idols Tiki, like the god of the Incas. But the scientific world considered the hypothesis complete nonsense. Well, savages could not build a ship capable of crossing the ocean! In search of evidence for his theory, the 25-year-old Heyerdahl came to British Columbia(Canada).

He hoped to find legends about seafarers among the local Indians. However, having traveled all over the west of Canada, he did not hear a single legend about Indian sailors. But he learned something else, and soon submitted to the public an article about the contacts of the peoples of the Pacific Islands and American Indians. In it, the Norwegian substantiated his conclusion that the ancestors of the Polynesians arrived precisely from the north, through Hawaii.

There, in Canada, Heyerdahl found the Second World War. Being a patriot, Tur enlisted in the Allied army and ended up in a sabotage radio school in Britain. As part of a sea convoy, his unit was transferred to Murmansk, from where the fighters were to go to the Norwegian Kirkenes.

Having studied Heyerdahl's documents, the NKVD officer was surprised: on the shoulders of a soldier who was listed as a sergeant, lieutenant stars flaunted. Disorder! Not listening to the explanations, the "special officer" sent the suspicious blonde back to London. And the unit in which Tur served was destroyed by the Nazis during the very first mission ... Subsequently, the researcher mentally thanked the meticulous Russian, who unwittingly saved his life.

After the war, Heyerdahl came to New York, where he presented his work on the resettlement of American Indians in the islands of Polynesia. As he foresaw, none of the academicians honored his article with attention. True, someone advised me to prove by their own example the possibility of such a journey. Considering that Heyerdahl, having miraculously not drowned in childhood, was terribly afraid of water, he had to refuse. Instead, the Tour began to prepare for sailing.

On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl, with five associates, departed on a raft from the Peruvian port of Callao and headed for Polynesia. The raft consisted of balsa wood logs and was called "Kon-Tiki" - after the name of the hero of Polynesian legends. The construction was identical to those built in antiquity. After 101 days of exhausting sailing, overcoming 4300 nautical miles, the travelers reached the Tuamotu Islands. The theory, which no one took seriously, was proven.

Some of the academicians tried to devalue the achievement of Tours, saying that even before him it was known about the resettlement of the ancestors of the Polynesians from Asia. But it was Tur who proved that they had previously been to America, thousands of miles to the east. Already in the 21st century, an analysis of the DNA of Polynesians and South American Indians was carried out, which showed a high degree of kinship between these ethnic groups.

The explorer organized a new expedition to Easter Island. Here he was interested in famous idols. Who put these bulky sculptures here and why? And although Tur did not give a complete answer to this question, he found out that the stone heads are a continuation of the bodies buried in the ground. In addition, he found previously unknown idols and the ruins of buildings that strongly resembled pre-Inca structures in South America...

Tour ordered the ship from Egyptian craftsmen. They recreated it according to old drawings and drawings from 12 tons of papyrus. Although the Egyptian Papyrus Institute warned that the stems would begin to disintegrate in salt water, the Norwegian had more faith in the masters of the past. The ship was named "Ra", in honor of the Egyptian sun god.

For a new campaign, Heyerdahl recruited an international team. The future host of the Travelers Club became the expedition doctor. In the spring of 1969, "Ra" sailed under the UN flag from the port of Safi in Morocco. For 8 weeks, the ship traveled 5 thousand kilometers, but did not reach the finish line: “Ra” in salt water, as scientists had warned, began to fall apart. From certain death, the crew was saved by a yacht passing by.

Heyerdahl did not give up. Less than a year later, with the same crew and from the same point, the papyrus boat "Ra-2" left. This time the ship was built by specialists from the Aymar tribe from Lake Titicaca (Bolivia). After 57 days, Ra-2, having defeated the Atlantic, finished near the island of Barbados. Heyerdahl was right.

Heyerdahl's last guess

In the spring of 2001, 87-year-old Thor Heyerdahl flew to Rostov-on-Don. It was not an idle journey: he wanted to find evidence for his theory that the ancestors of the Scandinavians were Udins, one of the ethnic minorities of Azerbaijan. From them, according to the researcher, comes the name of the highest deity of the Vikings - Odin. The scientist believed that they went north through the Don steppes.

This time he did not have time to prove his case: he was already seriously ill. Despite this. The tour amazed those around him with his efficiency. “Worked late. The light in his room was on until two in the morning. And at half past seven in the morning he was already on his feet, - the translator Yevgeny Vitkovsky recalled. - First I walked in front of the hotel, then returned to the room - took a cold shower, did exercises, had breakfast and went to the excavations ... "

Childhood
The future world famous scientist and traveler was born on October 6, 1914 in a small Norwegian town called Larvik. Interestingly, in the Heyerdahl family, it was customary to call their sons by the name Tur. However, despite the fact that both for the head of the family - the owner of the brewery, and for the mother - the worker of the anthropological museum, their marriage turned out to be the third in a row, and they already raised seven children, it was decided to name the youngest son by the family name Tur. The father, already an elderly man (at the time of the birth of his son he was 50 years old), had sufficient funds and traveled around Europe with great pleasure. On his trips, he certainly took the boy. Mother also loved Tur very much and not only showered him with affection and attention, but also took care of his education. It was thanks to her that the boy's interest in zoology woke up very early. Such enthusiasm and encouragement from his parents led Heyerdahl Thor to create a small zoological museum at home, the most spectacular exhibit of which was a stuffed viper. There were also many interesting things brought from distant countries. So it is not at all surprising that guests came to the Heyerdahl family not only for a cup of tea, but also for small excursion.

Youth.
After leaving school in 1933, Heyerdahl Thor entered the University of Oslo at the Faculty of Zoology, which did not surprise anyone close to him. While studying at the university, he devoted a lot of time to his favorite zoology, but he gradually became interested in ancient cultures and civilizations. It was during this period that he came to the conclusion that modern man completely forgot about age-old traditions and commandments, which eventually led to a series of fratricidal wars. By the way, the Tour retained confidence in this until the very last minutes of his life.

Wanderlust
At the end of seven semesters, Heyerdahl becomes bored at the university. Indeed, at that time he already possessed truly encyclopedic knowledge, some of which he received from his parents, and some he comprehended thanks to an independent study of certain issues. He dreams of doing his own research and traveling to distant exotic islands. Moreover, his friends and patrons Hjalmar Broch and Christine Bonnevie, whom he met during a trip to Berlin, were ready to help organize an expedition to the Polynesian Islands in order to find out how the representatives of the fauna inhabiting these places could be there today. Interestingly, this trip became not only an exciting adventure for the young scientist, but also a honeymoon trip. Indeed, before sailing, Heyerdahl Tour married a student of the Faculty of Economics - the beautiful Liv Coucheron-Thorpe. Liv turned out to be just as adventurous as her husband. At the same time, she not only accompanied Tur on his expedition, but was also his faithful assistant, as she had previously studied many books on zoology and Polynesia.

Journey to Fatu Khiva.
As a result, in 1937, Heyerdahl Tour and his wife Liv went to distant shores Polynesian island Fatu Khiva. Here they learned to survive in the wild, met the locals and engaged in scientific research. However, a year later, the couple had to interrupt their expedition. The fact is that Tur caught a rather dangerous disease, and Liv became pregnant. Therefore, in 1938, young researchers returned to Norway. Thus ended the first journey of the legendary Heyerdahl. He told about this expedition in his book "In Search of Paradise", published in 1938. In 1974, Tur published an expanded version of this work, which was called Fatu-Khiva.

Travel to Canada.
A few months after returning from Fatu Khiva, Liv gave birth to a son, who, according to family tradition, was given the name Tur. After another year, the couple had a second son, Bjorn. The head of the family continued his scientific activity, but gradually they began to occupy him more people and not animals. Thus, the zoologist who left for Polynesia returned to his homeland as an anthropologist. His new goal was to find an answer to the question of how the ancient Incas could get from America to Polynesia. Or maybe it was quite the opposite? So, Heyerdahl decides to go to Canada, to the places where the Indians used to live. He hoped that ancient legends about navigators could be preserved here. However, despite the fact that the Tour traveled all over the west of Canada, he never managed to find necessary information.

The Second World War.
During Heyerdahl's expedition, World War II broke out in Canada. Being a true patriot, Tur wanted to defend his homeland from the enemy. To do this, he moved to the United States and enlisted in the army. During the war, the Heyerdahl family lived first in the US and then moved to the UK.

The Travels of Thor Heyerdahl: The Kon-Tiki Expedition.
In 1946, the scientist is carried away by a new idea: he believes that in ancient times the American Indians could swim to the islands in the Pacific Ocean on rafts. Despite the backlash from historians, Tur organizes an expedition called "Kon-Tiki" and proves his case. After all, he and his team were able to get on a raft from Peru to the islands of the Taumotu archipelago. Interestingly, many scientists generally refused to believe in the very fact of this trip until they saw the documentary film shot during the expedition. Returning home, Heyerdahl divorced his wife Liv, who soon married a wealthy American. Tour, a few months later, marries Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen, who later bore him three daughters.

Travel to Easter Island.
Heyerdahl could never long time sit in one place. So, in 1955, he organized an archaeological expedition to Easter Island. It consisted of professional archaeologists from Norway. During the expedition, Tour and his colleagues spent several months on the island, exploring important archaeological sites. The focus of their work was on experimenting with carving, moving, and mounting the famous moai statues. In addition, the researchers were engaged in excavations on the Poike and Orongo uplands. Based on the results of their work, the members of the expedition published a number of scientific articles that laid the foundation for the study of Easter Island, which continues to this day. And Thor Heyerdahl, whose books have always enjoyed great success, wrote another bestseller called Aku-Aku.

- "Ra" and "Ra II" In the late 60s, Thor Heyerdahl was fascinated by the idea of ​​a sea voyage on a papyrus boat. In 1969, a restless explorer set sail on a boat designed from ancient Egyptian drawings called "Ra" on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. However, due to the fact that the craft was made of Ethiopian reeds, it got wet rather quickly, as a result of which the expedition members had to return back. The following year, a second boat was launched, named Ra II. It has been updated to reflect previous mistakes. Thor Heyerdahl once again achieved success by sailing from Morocco to Barbados. Thus, he was able to prove to all the world scientific community that ancient navigators could sail across the ocean using the Canary Current. The Ra II expedition included representatives from different countries, among whom was the famous Soviet traveler Yuri Senkevich.

- "Tigris" Another boat of Thor Heyerdahl called "Tigris" is also known. The explorer built this reed craft in 1977. The route of the expedition ran from Iraq to the shores of Pakistan, and then to the Red Sea. Thanks to this sea voyage, Thor Heyerdahl proved the possibility of trade and migration contacts between Mesopotamia and Indian civilization. At the end of the expedition, the explorer burned his boat in protest against the hostilities.

Indefatigable explorer.
Thor Heyerdahl has always had a thirst for adventure. He did not change himself even at the age of 80. So, in 1997, our compatriot and member of the Ra II expedition, Yuri Senkevich, went to meet an old friend. As part of his program "Travellers Club", he showed the viewer where Thor Heyerdahl lives. The hero of the story told about his many plans, among which was another trip to Easter Island.

Last years.
Thor Heyerdahl, whose biography was very rich in a wide variety of events, remained active and cheerful even at a very advanced age. This also applies to his personal life. So, in 1996, at the age of 82, the famous scientist and researcher divorced his second wife and married the French actress Jacqueline Beer. Together with his wife, he moved to Tenerife, where he bought a huge mansion built more than three centuries ago. Here he enjoyed gardening and even assured that he could make a good biologist. The great Thor Heyerdahl died in 2002 at the age of 87 from a brain tumor. In the last moments of his life, he was surrounded by his third wife and his five children.

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 a crew on the Kon-Tiki raft from Peru to Polynesia. In 1969 and 1970 sailed on papyrus boats"Ra" from Africa to the islands Central America, in 1977–1978 - on the reed boat "Tigris" along the route of 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; study of the cultural history of Polynesia

1936 expedition to Polynesia on the island of Fatu-Hiva of the Marquesas archipelago; the origin of the theory of the original settlement of the islands of Polynesia from America

1938 publication of the first book of the Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl "In Search of Paradise"

1947 expedition "Kon-Tiki", as a result 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 in papyrus boats "Ra" and "Ra-II"; the 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 Indian Ocean; based on the results of the study, the publication of the book "The Maldivian Mystery"

1991 exploration of the Guimar pyramids on the island of Tenerife; following the results of the study, 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 of Larvik. His father was a brewer. Mother ran the household. It 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, getting up, toileting, exercising, 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 little one had finished the job. And only then did mother and son leave the house with dignity. This is what the real, and not invented by the Germans, “Nordic” character is. There have always been many such people in Norway, and in this sense we can say that Thor Heyerdahl was born in the most ordinary family. True, such “commonness” is worth a lot if, as a result of the upbringing received in this family, honesty, directness, 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, direct, decisive and courageous.

From childhood, Tur dreamed of distant lands and travels. Most of all attracted his travels in the northern latitudes. As a high school student, Tur built a snow dwelling 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 is the birthplace of not only the Vikings, who were ahead of Columbus in the discovery of America, but also the great travel scientists - Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen.

But the first real journey of the Norwegian was a family expedition to the region southern seas – Polynesia. After graduating from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the young geographer and zoologist Heyerdahl, disillusioned with academic science, goes to Fatu Hiva island of the Marquesas archipelago. There they, having retired from civilization and white people, lived whole year. During this year, Thor Heyerdahl, having become acquainted with local myths and traditions, came to the conclusion that, quite possibly, the ancestors of the natives came to Polynesia from South America. He was convinced of this by the direction of the winds and ocean currents. They, according to the young researcher, were the reason for the birth of life on the islands.

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

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

The expedition started from the Peruvian Port of Callao. 7 brave sailors set off along the route, which, according to local legends, was once the great leader Kon-Tiki, who was expelled from Peru by the Inca conquerors. Swimming took longer three months, or rather, a hundred days. These were 100 days that did not shock the world, like 10 days of the seventeenth year, but, on the contrary, made it quiet down and await new messages from newspapers and radio with bated breath. On the one 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 coast of the Polynesian Raroia Islands.

This was Thor Heyerdahl's first victory. Indeed, 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. Pivotal to the project were experiments in carving, dragging, and erecting the famous moai statues, as well as excavations at high elevations such as Orongo and Poike.

Thor Heyerdahl wanted to test the hypothesis that famous statues when they were installed, the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island moved in an upright position, that is, they seemed to “walk” themselves. Thor Heyerdahl managed to show the whole world how it was done.

Local legend claimed that these colossal statues, depicting the leaders of the "short-eared" tribe, from the quarry, where they were carved, to the place of "rooting" got almost "under their own power", under the powerful influence of "mana" - a magical force that was created by strong-willed by the efforts of ancient sorcerers. In the sixties, when the fascination with magic and "extrasensory perception", as well as the teachings of E.P. Blavatsky and E.I. Roerich, some "scientific" journalists and other representatives of the educated public began to support this version. Of course, Thor Heyerdahl was not among the adherents of these teachings. As always, he decided to experiment.

To do this, he chose one statue lying on the ground and used for its movement a method that has long been known to loaders and riggers around 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 tilt large and massive objects over fairly long distances. Modern islanders (“short-eared”) acted as riggers under the leadership of a foreman - “senior Kon-Tiki”. It took strong ropes, logs, stones and poles, as well as well-coordinated actions and thoughtful commands of the scientist - and now the medium-sized statue, which had lain for 300 years, took a vertical position, stood, as if thinking, and - slowly, waddling, moved to its destination, turning with an expressive, nosy face, now to one side, then to the other. The cameramen filmed this scene so that the whole enlightened world could see how the giant moai, the statues of the island of Rapa Nui, move “under their own power”.

Of course, Heyerdahl's experience with the movement of the long-eared idol did not claim to explain other burning secrets 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 ancient architecture. But the scientific and historical significance of this experiment is important, if only for the simple reason that in subsequent publications about the island of Pasca and its statues, the mysterious “mana” of the Rapanui sorcerers, the participation of aliens and other near-scientific components began to take up 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"); later Heyerdahl 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, has become another international bestseller.

In Easter Island: A Mystery Solved (1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on local evidence and archaeological research, he stated that the island was inhabited at the very beginning by "long-eared" from South America, and "short-eared" arrived there from Polynesia only in the middle of the 16th century; they may have come to the island on their own, or may have been brought in as labor. According to Heyerdahl's theory, something happened on the island between its discovery by the Dutch admiral Jakob Roggeveen in 1722 and the visit of James Cook in 1774. If Roggeven met on the island both whites, and Indians, and Polynesians, who lived in relative harmony and prosperity, then by the time Cook arrived, the population had already been significantly reduced, and it consisted mainly of Polynesians who lived in need.

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

The first boat, designed according to the drawings and models of boats of Ancient Egypt and named "Ra", was built by specialists with Lake Chad(Republic of Chad) from reeds mined on 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, immerse the stern into the water and, in the end, broke into pieces. The team was forced to leave the ship. Another boat next year "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, thus demonstrating that ancient navigators could make transatlantic sailings using the Canary Current. Despite the fact that the purpose of the voyage of "Ra" was only to confirm seaworthiness ancient ships built of 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 made a documentary.

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 in the face of modern Pakistan. The Tigris was built in Iraq and sailed with an international crew through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan and from there to the Red Sea. After about 5 months of navigation, 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's expedition on the reed boat "Tigris", woven from reed in the style of ancient Sumerian ships, confirmed that Mesopotamian reed is just as suitable for boat building as papyrus, it only needs to be collected in a certain season when it has the greatest water resistance. This was certainly known to the Sumerian boat builders, who on similar "tigris" rose from the mouth of the Indus and the Red Sea. Unfortunately, the crew of the Tigris was not able to complete the planned program one hundred percent: when the ship ended up in a war zone that was then tearing apart the Middle East, and was detained by the 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 Maldives set out to confirm that long before the Arabs and Vasco da Gama, mysterious ancient navigators visited these places, leaving behind stone sculptures of unknown bearded people, long-eared, like idols on Easter Island.

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

Heyerdahl's latest project is described in his book "Looking for Odin. In the footsteps of our past". Heyerdahl began excavations in Azov, a city not far from 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. In this saga, it is said that a leader named Odin led a tribe called Ases and led them north through Saxony to the island of Funen in Denmark, and finally settled in Sweden. There, according to the text of Snorri Sturluson, he made such an impression on the locals 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 is based on real facts.

This project has caused sharp criticism in Norway from historians, archaeologists and linguists and has been recognized as 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 similarity of names in Norse mythology and 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 got its name 1,000 years after the Ases, the inhabitants of Asgard, settled there, according to Heyerdahl. The bitter controversy that surrounded the Quest for Odin project was in many ways typical of Heyerdahl's relationship with academia. His theories rarely received scientific recognition, while Heyerdahl himself rejected scientific criticism and focused 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 Scandinavians. In the last two decades of his life, he traveled several times to Azerbaijan and visited the church of Kish. His theory regarding Odin was rejected by the scientific community, 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, stunned and at the same time inspired them with the statement: “Perhaps the ancestors of the Scandinavians came from the Azov-Caucasian region!” The indefatigable researcher based himself 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 with his aces warriors from the Caucasus. This immediately brings to mind the name of Odin, the supreme god of the Scandinavians and the leader of the heroic tribe of Ases. “If Ogden and Odin are one and the same person, then is it not from the name of the As people that the names of the city of Azov and the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov come from?” the scientist asked, starting archaeological excavations in the middle of the city blocks of Azov, and explained to reporters “I don’t have to prove that I am right that Snorre described real events. I just want to know the truth about how the world was thousands of years ago, where and where the peoples moved from.”

Heyerdahl was an activist in green politics. World fame Heyerdahl was the reason for his meetings with famous politicians. He even delivered a report on the importance of environmental protection to the last head of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. Heyerdahl participated in the awarding of the Alternative Nobel Prize every year as a member of the jury. In 1994, Heyerdahl and actress Liv Ullman were chosen by the Norwegians to perform an honorary duty opening of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer and appeared before a television audience of more than a billion people. In 1999 compatriots Thor Heyerdahl was named the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century. He was the recipient of numerous medals and prizes, as well as 11 honorary degrees from American and European universities.

Heyerdahl died at the age of 87 from a brain tumor at the Colla-Mikeri 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.