Thor Heyerdahl, called The Viking, in 1947, the 28 of April , in the port of Callao, Peru, he sailed a balsa, Kon Tiki, a
copy of an ancient Peruvian balsa, to cross the colossal and empty Pacific Ocean. The Kon Tiki balsa raft drift in the Equatorial Southbound Current with a crew of six men; in three months of voyage it crossed 8 000 km. to Polynesia. Finally, they reached the Islands Marquises, in 7 of August, when the Kon Tiki ran aground in the reef o Raroia. This voyage gave a definite proof of the sea-worthiness of the original Peruvian coastal cultures and how they could brought South American food plants, like yucca, sweet potatoes (ipomea weet potatoes),
totora (scirpus totora) and pumpkin (lager vulgaris) to Polynesia before the arrival of Columbus.
The Inca tradition keeps the record of the great Tupac Yupanqui Inca`s expedition to the East Pacific c. 1489. The Inca`s flotilla, composed by at least 400 or more well-manned balsa rafts. It returned successfully nine months later.
Heyerdahhl says that centuries before the Vikings began to sail the open seas, the voyages from the Lambayeque Valley –Peru- had started navigating in the open Pacific. So, Kon Tiki voyage demonstrates that the ancient Peruvian had not only a real sailoring but that they used excellent native vessels made of “totora”, which resist rock and safely reach the beach. He describes too another type of vessel, made of airfilled wolf skin (sea lion) as well as airfilled pumpkins used as floating devices.
Bartholomeus Ruiz, pilot of the conqueror Pizarro, got in 1527 a definite proof of the excellent qualities of the native vessels when he met the first of these sailing rafts a sea before they reached Peru. It was the Tumbes balsa. This vessel which he captured appeared to have a capacity of up to thirty tonels (36 gross tons.); the flat underbody keel were constructed of logs as thick as posts, lashed together with ropes of “henneque” (a kind of hemp). It carried masts and yards of very fine wood, and cotton sails.
Yet, arriving in Peru, the Spaniards preferred to depend on balsa rafts and local mariners until familiarize with reefs and currents and had built their own ports for open European vessels. Today these balsas or rafts still are built only to serve the needs of modest fishermen. We can meet them in Ecuador lowering by the coast of Peru until Talara and Piura.
The discovery in Sipan and Tucume of various remarkable remains confirmed conclusively that the Peruvians from Lambayeque Valley sailed the open seas before Columbus brought Europeans to America. Other archaeologists disclosed out the maritime aspect of the Inca culture all along Peruvian litoral plains.
Finally, he says that regarding maritime motifs at Chan Chan –the ancient capital of Chimu people-, nearly every relief in its walls has a maritime theme. The interesting thing about Chan Chan is that there is very central interest inmaritime motifs, really almost to the exclusion oof any other type of imagery.
The book was written as a speech for a meeting of Peruvian and foreign archaelogists assembled in Chiclayo, Peru, in early July, 1995, to exchange information on research and discoveries with bearing upon the pre European period in Peru.
Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian biologist, geographer and
voyager, passed away in 1995.