# Thor Heyerdahl

> He built a raft from balsa logs and rope, then drifted 5,000 miles across the Pacific to prove ancient South Americans could have reached Polynesia first. The scientific community rejected the theory before he even set sail.

*Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer (1914-2002)*

**Canonical URL:** https://fame.am/person/thor-heyerdahl

## Identity
- **Profile type:** Academic ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631))
- **Category:** Academics
- **Country:** Norway
- **Born:** 1914-10-06
- **Died:** 2002-04-18
- **Status:** deceased
- **Gender:** male

## Bio

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer trained in zoology, botany, and geography who turned fieldwork into spectacle. In 1947 he launched the Kon-Tiki expedition - a hand-built primitive raft that carried him 8,000 kilometers from South America to the Tuamotu Islands, attempting to demonstrate that legendary "Tiki people" had colonized Polynesia before the Polynesians themselves. His hyperdiffusionist ideas about ancient cultures were widely dismissed by scientists even before he left shore. Undeterred, he continued mounting voyages to test contact between separated civilizations, including the 1970 Ra II expedition in which he sailed a papyrus reed boat from West Africa to Barbados. Norway appointed him a government scholar in 1984 and gave him a state funeral in Oslo Cathedral when he died in Italy in 2002. His archives - photographs, diaries, expedition plans, private letters spanning 1937 to 2002 - were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2011.

## Fame
- **Popularity score:** 63.2 / 100
- **Momentum:** 0.0 / 100  (trend: FALLING)
- **Historical depth:** 25.9 / 100
- **Attention shift:** 14.2 / 100
- **Source confidence:** 65.0 / 100
- **Profile completeness:** 75.0 / 100

## Platforms
- **IMDB**: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382217/ (@nm0382217)

## Topics
#Historical Figures, #Scientist, #Chemistry, #History, #Screenwriting, #Television, #Literature, #Norway

## Timeline
- **2002** - Died
- **1999** - Peer Gynt Literary Award
- **1997** - Medal of St. Hallvard
- **1987** - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav
- **1985** - Fridtjof Nansen Award for outstanding research, historical-philosophical class
- **1971** - Grand Officer of the Order of Wissam El Alaoui
- **1965** - Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- **1962** - Vega Medal
- **1950** - Mungo Park Medal
- **1914** - Born

## Sources
- [托尔·海尔达尔](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%98%E5%B0%94%C2%B7%E6%B5%B7%E5%B0%94%E8%BE%BE%E5%B0%94)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Хейердал, Тур](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BB%2C_%D0%A2%D1%83%D1%80)
- [トール・ヘイエルダール](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%98%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AB%E3%83%80%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133622)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Pantheon 2.0](https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Thor%20Heyerdahl)
- [টুর হেয়ার্ডাল](https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0_%E0%A6%B9%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B2)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Тур Хейердал Тур](https://cv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D1%83%D1%80_%D0%A5%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BB_%D0%A2%D1%83%D1%80)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Θορ Χέιερνταλ](https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%98%CE%BF%CF%81_%CE%A7%CE%AD%CE%B9%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BB)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Wikiquote](https://az.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tur_Heyerdal)
- [Wikiquote](https://cs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Wikiquote](https://eo.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Wikiquote](https://es.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Wikiquote](https://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)
- [Thor Heyerdahl](https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1134936)

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