Kon-Tiki raft voyage
Travesía de la balsa Kon-Tiki
- Date
- 28 de abril - 7 de agosto de 1947 · confidence high
- Place
- Callao to Raroia (Tuamotu archipelago), French Polynesia
- Credited to
- Thor Heyerdahl and five companions
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Six men crossed about 6,900 km of the Pacific on an unpowered raft of Ecuadorian balsa logs, from Callao to Raroia, in 101 days. It aimed to show that Polynesia could have been settled from South America.
Heyerdahl's thesis (settlement of Polynesia from South America) is refuted by linguistics, archaeology and genetics: Polynesians arrived from the west. However, a 2020 genetic study (Nature) detected admixture between Polynesians and Native Americans around 1200, showing occasional contact.
What it led to
- an Academy Award for documentary (1951) and a worldwide bestseller
- experimental archaeology of prehistoric navigation
- debate over trans-Pacific contacts between the Americas and Polynesia