European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 31, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Daniel Drosdoff United press International e explorer Thor Heyerdahl finds Small clues and imagines magnificent  half a Century these clues a drawing on a Rock a Plant an ancient legend have been enough to hurl the trim norwegian across three oceans in ancient sea crafts to prove theories about where Man has been and How he got there. And it is apparent As he stands in a red dirt excavation Trench beside a fallen Stone statue on easter Island Chile that even at the age of 71, he has no intention of stopping. Imagine we found a rain worm Here he exclaims in a voice suggesting Celebration. And his enthusiasm is so contagious that you d join him if Only you had the slightest idea what he was talking about. That Means there is humus and that Means there was once a Forest cover he explains. The disappearance of the Forest was due to human activity. They needed to Clear land for  evidence of ancient Farmers. He writes Down details in a Small notebook and thrusts it Back into his neatly pressed Khaki trousers. He returns his attention to the dig his battered Blue australian Bush hat shielding the South Pacific Sun. On the surface Heyerdahl is a logical scholarly Man who Speaks evenly and deliberately of his Long gone magnificent worlds but inside is the perennial rebel against an Over protective Mother and sceptical father. He is a Man who built a Reed ship and sailed it Back and Forth across the Indian Ocean to prove a scientific Point and then burned it to make a personal Point against Arm sales to the third world. I am absolutely convinced after a Long time among people of All nations in All cultural stages and from the study of All the Early civilizations right from the beginning of our knowledge which goes Back to 3,000 . That the human brain the human character the mentality has not changed a bit says Heyerdahl. For better or worse. I think at that time there were just As Many geniuses and just As Many idiots and just As Many men in the Middle of the Road As there Are today. We ourselves have not  although millions know him As the author of the adventure books Kon Tiki and a Heyerdahl himself refuses labels. He is an archaeologist who says he is not an archaeologist a daring navigator who was never a Sailor a scientist who infuriates colleagues by proving them wrong and a College dropout who spent a Fortune trying to win acceptance from Academia. And he is a courageous Man so convinced of his own scientific theories that he dared to take calculated personal risks while colleagues stuck to their textbooks. Sitting inside a battered Blue bus parked beside the easter Island excavation munching on a Box lunch of cold Chicken Heyerdahl reflects on the ironies. My father was a wonderful human being he muses but he was afraid i would not be a real  then he sailed across the Pacific for 101 Days in a fragile Balsa raft. I think that finally convinced  Heyerdahl s life has been dominated by three challenges to live in Harmony with nature and improve it to make his Mark on the scientific Community and to build on his Conception of the Basic Unity of Mankind. He is a Man who likes to theorize. Once you have a working hypothesis everything else Falls into place he says. Yet theories must be demonstrated and More often than not Heyerdahl has been his own test tube. At age 24, wondering if an isolated Pacific Island was flying the flags of several nations the Kon Tiki makes its Way across the Pacific in 1947. Up photo really the Paradise he imagined he went there. He and his Young Bride Liv his first wife lived on an isolated archipelago in polynesia for a year without Medicine or matches and eating tropical fruit and fish. We Learned that the real Story is that Man cannot do without civilization today. I wrote a Book about that experience that ended with the words you cannot buy a ticket to Paradise. You can find Paradise in the heart of the ugliest City if you realize that Paradise is something you have inside you and not something you find by looking  Heyerdahl however never stopped looking around. What i was really longing for was to get in touch with people who had their feet on solid ground and lived in Unity with the universe and the  ironically it was a Lack of Unity among scholars that first triggered Heyerdahl s decision to go see for himself something that would become the trademark of his career. As a student at the University of Oslo he read everything he could about Pacific cultures and primitive Island life Only to find that none of the experts agreed on How humans first came to polynesia. I did t know whom to believe he said. The one who was studying the skeletal material came to one conclusion. Then another studying the language said it was impossible. Then a third who had studied a types came to still another  Heyerdahl later developed a theory of his own widely accepted now but heresy in the 1940s polynesia was not first settled by sailors from Indonesia but by South american indians crossing the oceans on primitive sea Craft taking the prevailing winds and currents near the Equator. It was not until later that the Peoples of Southeast Asia travelling via the Japan current took prevailing winds toward North America and then circled Back Down to the South Pacific. The heart of his theory was that primitive navigators always followed the winds and currents. Curiously however the first proof came from botany. When the first europeans found the islands of polynesia the Sweet potato and other plants already had been introduced and were available in abundance just As they were in South America. At the time those foods were unknown in Southeast Asia. Later Heyerdahl would add to that proof by finding unmistakable links Between the ancient Art Stone engravings and even the indians of Canada South America and polynesia. As a biologist who had studied geography i realized it was impossible absolutely impossible to sail a primitive vessel against the wind and currents from Indonesia to polynesia Heyerdahl says. I knew the Only one who had tried to do it Eric de Bisschop had failed. He had tried for three years to sail against the wind and current and concluded it can t be done and it was t done. Then he travelled to Hawaii built a double Canoe and had no trouble at All sailing from Hawaii on  always the Maverick Heyerdahl began his Field research in the Marquesas islands in the late 1930s As a zoologist. Then he decided to switch to anthropology dropping out of the University of Oslo in his Fouth year so he could study the Bella Coola indians of Western Canada. I graduated in nothing he says. I quit zoology. Obviously this is Why i had a terrible fight with the whole world in the beginning because i had gone my own  in Canada Heyerdahl elaborated one major part of his theory that polynesians came to the West coast of North America from Southeast Asia before they returned to the sea and sailed Westward across the Pacific. In this he says he followed in the footsteps of his predecessors. All the Early explorers pointed out the similarities Between the people of new zealand and the people of British Columbia he says. The physical types. The similarity in the canoes. The similarity of the Maori statues and the Northwest totem poles. The woodcarving. The Stone and whalebone clubs very specialized. The Stone tools. The clothing. The Earth oven. Every single element was pointed out by  Heyerdahl personally observed the similarities Between the Northwest indians and the natives of polynesia but despite his evidence he could not find a publisher to print his conclusions. It was not until after world War ii in 1947, that he was Able to offer his most dramatic proof boarding the Balsa raft Kon Tiki named for a pre inca Sun god for the 101-Day journey across the Pacific from Callao Peru to the Marquesas islands. He was ridiculed by no less than anthropologist Margaret Mead. Harvard professor . Lotroph an authority on primitive navigation wrote that a Balsa raft could not possibly float for two weeks. Heyerdahl said he would never forget the feeling of Triumph when he and his five crewmen pulled themselves out of the surf on the polynesian atoll of Taroia. I crawled up on the dry Sand and counted the men around me. That feeling can never be matched. We had really made it and we were All alive a fact that some scientists May have secretly regretted. Today Heyerdahl traces his nearly constant friction with recognized scholars to the Success of Kon Tiki. I had stepped on too Many toes of the old professors he said. They got Hurt and to make it worse the general press made me out to be a sort of rough norwegian Viking coming out of the sailing boat world and proving the professional world wrong. It was pointless for me to make them understand that i was t a Sailor at All. We just Hung onto a very Good vessel. The press altogether forgot that i too was a scholar with academic  nevertheless he freely admits that a scepticism of scientific authority is ingrained in his thinking. I must be very outspoken. I have no respect for authority he says. I Don t accept what a Man says just because he is an authority. Time and time again we dig and we find the authorities Are  not Only were authorities wrong about the Balsa raft but they were also wrong when they told him South american indians never reached the Galapagos islands 600 Miles off Ecuador. Heyerdahl led an expedition there in 1952 and found pre inca pottery and other artefacts. He followed that expedition in 1955 with his first study of easter Island a trip that proved to be a Benchmark in two critical areas. First it was a turning Point in his Campaign for academic acceptance. Second it left him broke. The excavation team found in its digging that the mysterious brooding Stone statues of easter Island were actually twice As Large As previously thought As Well As evidence that the Island had been inhabited a thousand years earlier than previously believed. Those and other finds such As different styles of statue Art representing different cultural periods forced the academic world to take notice. The University of Oslo changed its bylaws so it could award Heyerdahl an honorary doctorate an award previously reserved for foreigners. The Royal geographical society in London awarded him a Gold medal. Today he is philosophical about his War with the academics. I believe in opposition he says standing on easter Island s Alakena Beach in the Shadow of another towering statue. When i got the Gold medal i had to give a speech. I had to admit looking Back that the people who had done most for science and for myself were really my opponents who had been bringing up arguments that made me go ahead and look for new  but the Cost of acceptance was High. After the Kon Tiki Book and movie which won an Oscar Heyerdahl was temporarily Rich. But every Penny i had went into the easter Island trip a one year voyage that involved the Cost of chartering a ship and hiring 23 people including five archaeologists a Captain and a Crew. I be never recovered from that expedition he says. Ill have to work until i  despite that Heyerdahl does raise enough Money to stay Active. And keep the academic world fuming. I ? 7/ior Heyerdahl stands near some of the mysterious statues on easter Island. Up photo Thor Heyerdahl 71, says he has no intention of halting his explorations. Always the Maverick up photo Page 14 the stars and stripes monday March 31, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 15