The Viracocha expedition first reed boats built? Were ancient mariners able to cover large distances in reed rafts? Did ancient cultures utilize the ocean currents and winds as highways rather than barriers in search of new lands? Were the ancient navigators able to find their way across endless miles of ocean? These are questions the scientific world has debated for centuries. The expeditions of explorer/anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl captured the imagination of the world with the Kon-Tiki balsa log raft voyage on the Pacific in 1947, his Ra Expedition, a reed raft journey across the Atlantic in 1970 and his Tigris reed boat voyage
Thor Heyerdahl between widely separated ancient people, notably the "Ra II" expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984. In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's "Memory of the World" Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki