Kon Tiki

KonTiki on Wiki -----

What was the KonTiki Expedition really all about?

A place to start might be reading about ThorHeyerdahl: http://www.greatdreams.com/thor.htm.

The KonTiki expedition demonstrated that Polynesia could have been settled by Amerinds from SouthAmerica?, traveling west on rafts made from Amazonian balsa wood (the wood they make disposable chopsticks from).

ThorHeyerdahl explicitly states such a voyage can't "prove" that the Amerinds ever did this; it merely shows that such a raft could have been used. By comparison, the Chinese sent a colony over 1,000 years ago to CentralAmerica?, where they influenced the local cultures. Polynesia could have been settled, or influenced, by Amerinds, but modern genetic and linguistic analysis reveals Polynesians are overwhelmingly Pacifics from Australasia.

DO you have a reference for this Chinese colony? I've only heard of them reaching the California-area coast, and only evidence of fishing boat activity. -- PeteHardie

Thor assembled a crew, and they lashed together 12 huge balsa logs. Then they built a prow out of two planks, to part the water, and built a shack in the middle of the raft. They stabilized the raft with two cross beams, and put a square sail on an A-frame. A great flat plank shoved down between two logs, and a large rudder paddle lashed over the stern, steered the raft. It could have handled like a skipjack. Thor found that raising and lowering the keel plank helped steer; but a square sail implies he could not tack.

Quite the Survivor-style endeavor.

Thor sailed on the HumboldtCurrent? from SouthAmerica? west to the PolynesianIslands?. He foundered within sight of an island, but of course he brought a radio & could call in help.

Later in his career Thor built a huge version of the small reed boats used on LakeTiticaca?, and sailed it from SouthAmerica? almost to the AfricanContinent?.

What does this have to do with programming? An experiment is worth a thousand theories...

-- PhilipCraigPlumlee

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