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 excavations at such prominent sites as Orongo and Poike. The expedition published two large volumes of scientific reports ("Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific") and Heyerdahl later added a third ("The Art of Easter Island"). Heyerdahl's popular book on the subject, "Aku-Aku" was another international best-seller. In "Easter Island: The Mystery Solved" (Random House, 1989), Heyerdahl offered a more detailed theory of the island's history. Based on native testimony and archaeological research, he claimed the island was originally colonized by Hanau eepe ("Long Ears"), from South America, and that Polynesian Hanau momoko ("Short