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Thor Heyerdahl—explorer

Birth

Heyerdahl, Thor (1914-2002) Anthropologist, born in Larvik, S Norway.

Thor Heyerdahl is born (October 6)

Death

Thor Heyerdahl died at his home in Colla Machari, Italy, at the age of 87 on April 18, 2002; he had been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor in early April.

Education

Thor Heyerdahl is a Norwegian anthropologist and explorer born in Larvik on October 6, 1914. He attended the University of Oslo.

Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), Norwegian anthropologist and explorer, best known for his theories about migration patterns of various ancient peoples. Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway, on October 6, 1914, and was educated at the University of Oslo.

Fame

Born in Larvik, Norway in 1914, Thor Heyerdahl gained fame for his voyages across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in boats built with prehistoric designs and materials.

In 1991, the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl (of Kon-Tiki fame) discovered that the 'heaps of rock' were something more - they were in fact bona fide pyramids, with similarities to those build by the Mayans and Aztecs in Mexico.

Work

After the book by Thor Heyerdahl theorising the statues of Easter Island were moved in this fashion.] source: LangMaker.com.

Thor Heyerdahl and Andrew Sharp's attacks on Polynesian settlement orthodoxy, Heyerdahl's drew the most public attention.

Thor Heyerdahl drifted on a raft made of balsa wood logs from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands on the eastern edge of Polynesia to prove that these craft, once used by South American Indians, could have carried migrants to Polynesia. Heyerdahl needed this demonstration to support his theory that the first people to Polynesia came from the east, from South America.

The story of Thor Heyerdahl and his crew's history making 1947 raft voyage from South America to Polynesia, read by Welsh born actor Alan Haines.

Thor Heyerdahl also investigated the pyramidal mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Extraordinary explorer and naturalist Thor Heyerdahl in the year 1947 during his famous 'Kon-Tiki' voyage through the Pacific Ocean used amateur radio equipments to communicate from his small reft on the high sea.

Thor Heyerdahl also investigated the pyramidal mounds found on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. ... He also discovered their special astronomical orientation. Heyerdahl advanced a theory according to which the Canaries had been bases of ancient shipping between America and the Mediterranean. ... Heyerdahl was also an active figure in 'Green' politics. He was the recipient of numerous medals and awards. He also received 11 honorary doctorates from universities in the Americas and Europe. Heyerdahl's expeditions were spectacular, and his heroic journeys in flimsy boats caught the public imagination.