How long did it take the Kon-Tiki to travel from Peru to Polynesia?

How long did it take the Kon-Tiki to travel from Peru to Polynesia?

101 days
Six men on a raft: The Kon-Tiki sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 101 days in 1947.

How did the Kon-Tiki find its way to the islands?

After 101 days at sea the Kon-Tiki ran aground on a coral reef by the Raroia atoll in Polynesia. The expedition had been an unconditional success, and Thor Heyerdahl and his crew had demonstrated that South American peoples could in fact have journeyed to the islands of the South Pacific by balsa raft.

What was Thor Heyerdahl’s theory on migration to Polynesia?

The theory, published in full in Heyerdahl’s 1952 book American Indians in the Pacific: The theory behind the Kon-Tiki expedition (henceforth American Indians), claimed that the first settlers of the Pacific island world, in stark contrast to established scientific tradition, had not been of Asiatic origin, but in fact …

What was Thor Heyerdahl trying to prove by setting off into the Pacific on a primitive raft of ancient design?

Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents.

What did the Polynesians take on their voyages?

Polynesians carried pigs, chicken and dogs on all of their voyages to prepare for the eventual settlement of new islands. They would carry enough fermented starch to keep the animals alive for several months.

What was Thor Heyerdahl trying to prove?

When Thor Heyerdahl boarded the Kon-Tiki balsa raft in 1947, he hoped to finally prove that the Pacific islands could have been settled by people from South America, as opposed to the prevailing theory, which was that settlers came from the west. And long before Europeans first saw the white beaches of the islands.

What did Thor Heyerdahl propose?

Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki’s neolithic people colonised the then uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga around 500 AD.

What was Thor Heyerdahl trying to prove with the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947?

Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents. Heyerdahl and his five-person crew set sail from Callao, Peru, on the 45-foot-long Kon-Tiki on April 28, 1947.

How did Polynesians get to Polynesia?

The researchers compared DNA samples from more than 4,700 people in Southeast Asia and Polynesia. Based on this, they determined that Polynesians arrived in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea at least 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, via Indonesia, and presumably left the mainland about 10,000 years ago.

When did Thor Heyerdahl sail to Polynesia?

Christened Kon-Tiki, after the Inca god, Heyerdahl and a small crew left Callao, Peru, in April 1947, traversed some 5,000 miles of ocean, and arrived in Polynesia after 101 days. Heyerdahl related the story of the epic voyage in the book Kon-Tiki (1950) and in a documentary film of the same name, which won the 1952 Oscar for Best Documentary.

Where did Thor Heyerdahl go on the Kon Tiki?

On 28 April 1947 Thor and five other men left Callao in Peru on a balsawood raft called the Kon-Tiki, destined for Polynesia. The raft ran aground on the Raroia atoll in Polynesia after 101 days in open waters.

What did Thor Heyderdahl use to build his raft?

Heyerdahl was determined to build his raft only using the materials that were available to Peruvians in the pre-Columbian era (before 1492). Design-wise, they went off illustrations of ancient Indigenous Peruvian ships, as recorded by the Spanish conquistadors.

What did Thor Heyerdahl find in the Galapagos Islands?

Shards of prehistoric South American pottery and an Incan flute were among their findings, the evidence on which Heyerdahl and the two Norwegian archeologists, Arne Skjølsvold and Erik K. Reed, could assert that South American peoples had reached the Galápagos Islands well before Columbus reached the Americas.