Autograph of Thor Heyerdahl

Certified Authentic autograph in document (C 457). Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2006). Norwegian archaeologist, traveler and writer, author of many books. Heyerdahl was prompted to sail on a raft across the Pacific Ocean by ancient chronicles and drawings of Spanish conquistadors depicting Incan rafts, as well as local legends and archaeological evidence suggesting that there might have been contacts between South America and Polynesia. In 1947, Heyerdahl and five other travelers arrived in Peru, where they built a pae-pae raft from balsa wood and other natural materials, which they called the Kon-Tiki. On August 7, after 101 days of navigation, the Kon-Tiki, having covered 4,300 nautical miles (8,000 km) in the Pacific Ocean, washed up on the reefs of the Raroia Atoll of the Tuamotu Islands.