Thor Heyerdahl

Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer (1914-2002)

Fame65.3
Momentum3.8
Norway rank#47

Source-basedStable

Fame65.3
Momentum3.8
Norway rank#47
Scientists rank#157
Wikipedia29.2K

Lived 1914–2002, aged 88Norway

Norway ScientistsScientist

Wikipedia
78 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Norway
#47
Scientists
Era
1914–2002
Aged 88
Known for
Pippi in the South Seas
1970

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

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.

Biography

About

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, includi…

Voice