Kon-Tiki2 Expedition



Did early Polynesians and the First Americans really evolve in splendid isolation from each other? Or was there a pattern of contacts linking the coastal part of the Inca Empire and the people who erected the mysterious standing stone heads of Easter Island? For centuries, this was one of the enduring mysteries of the ancient world. 

There is no doubt that the South Americans possessed the maritime skills and technology to sail from South America to Polynesia.

What remains unknown, however, is whether they could have returned. Likewise, while we know that the Polynesian people used canoes and rafts for the settlement of the Pacific, nobody knows whether they had vessels robust enough to make the daunting voyage to South America. But that’s about to change. The KonTiki2 Expedition will set sail in November 2015 and the Thor Heyerdahl Institute are proud to sponsor the expedition.