Heyerdahl claimed that the geographic location of the mythic Aser or Æsir matched the region of contemporary Azerbaijan-" east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea ".

Philologists and historians reject these parallels as mere coincidences, and also anachronisms, for instance the city of Azov did not have that name until over 1000 years after Heyerdahl claims the Æsir dwellt there.

Heyerdahl was particularly interested in Snorre's reference to the land of origin of the Æsir people.

Heyerdahl also claimed that findings and Russian written sources from the Caucasus area verify not only the existence of the Æsir or the Iranian Ossetians ; whom he described as " the Odin people of today "— but also of an ancient tribe living around the area of Lake Van in today's Turkey.

Azov is believed by Heyerdahl to have derived its name from as-hof-temple of the Æsir.

Mainstream linguists and historians will say that the city of Azov got its name from the Turks, over 1000 years after Heyerdahl believes the Æsir lived there.

Heyerdahl also points to the similarities between the word Æsir and the Azeri and Ossetian peoples of the Caucasus, between the god Odin and the Caucasian language group Udi and between the god Tyr and Turkey, and between the Vanir ( a group of Norse gods ) and the word Vannic, which was for a time in the 19th and 20th centuries the name used for the Urartian language, spoken in ancient times in the area around Lake Van.

Heyerdahl further argued in his book American Indians in the Pacific that the current inhabitants of Polynesia migrated from an Asian source, but via an alternate route.

* 1947 – Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

In particular, they point out that Heyerdahl makes no attempt to look at the development of languages-he anachronistically compares modern day forms with ancient ones.

Heyerdahl and a small team went to Peru, where, with the help of dockyard facilities provided by the Peruvian authorities, they constructed the raft out of balsa logs and other native materials in an indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadores.

Ra II, a ship built from papyrus, was successfully sailed across the Atlantic by Thor Heyerdahl proving that it was possible to cross the Atlantic from Africa using such boats in early epochs of history.

The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.

When the Spaniards came to Peru, Heyerdahl asserted, the Incas told them that the colossal monuments that stood deserted about the landscape were erected by a race of white gods who had lived there before the Incas themselves became rulers.

Heyerdahl claimed that these people could count their ancestors who were " white-skinned " right back to the time of Tiki and Hotu Matua, when they first came sailing across the sea " from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun.

The oral history of the people of Easter Island, at least as it was documented by Heyerdahl, is completely consistent with this theory, as is the archaeological record he examined ( Heyerdahl 1958 ).

In particular, Heyerdahl obtained a radiocarbon date of 400 for a charcoal fire located in the pit that was held by the people of Easter Island to have been used as an " oven " by the " Long Ears ," which Heyerdahl's Rapa Nui sources, reciting oral tradition, identified as a white race which had ruled the island in the past ( Heyerdahl 1958 ).

Davis says that Heyerdahl " ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong.

The Tigris was crewed by eleven men: Thor Heyerdahl ( Norway ), Norman Baker ( USA ),

The ship designs, in particular, were regarded by Heyerdahl as similar and drawn with a simple sickle – shaped lines, representing the base of the boat, with vertical lines on deck, illustrating crew or, perhaps, raised oars.

The voyage, organized by Torgeir Higraff and called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Heyerdahl, an effort to better understand navigation via centerboards (" quara ") as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean's environment.

* Sea Routes to Polynesia Extracts from lectures by Thor Heyerdahl

* The Kon-Tiki ( 1947 ), a balsa raft built by Thor Heyerdahl and sailed from Peru to Polynesia to demonstrate the possibility of cultural exchange between South America and the Polynesian islands.

Bygdøy has several museums, like the Kon-Tiki Museum, which shows all year long the legendary expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl ; the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History ( Norsk Folkemuseum ); the Viking Ship Museum ; the Norwegian Maritime Museum and the ship Fram, used by Roald Amundsen.

After the last book the attacks against Heyerdahl were also worded in a way that by many was seen as disrespectful.

Kon-Tiki was the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands.

* In 1969 and 1970 Thor Heyerdahl launched expeditions to cross the Atlantic in boats built from papyrus.

Keeping up with his sensationalist style, Heyerdahl argued that ' Redin ' were people coming from somewhere else, whereas an ancient Maldivian poem ( Fua Mulaku Rashoveshi ) says: " Havitta uhe haudahau, Redin taneke hedi ihau ".

* 1970 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

* May 17 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II, to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

Heyerdahl blamed their separation on his being away from home and differences in their ideas for bringing up children.

In the Kon-Tiki expedition, Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers went to Peru, they constructed a pae-pae raft from balsa wood and other native materials, a raft that they called the Kon-Tiki.

Heyerdahl attempted to counter the linguistic argument with the analogy that, guessing the origin of African-Americans, he would prefer to believe that they came from Africa, judging from their skin colour, and not from England, judging from their speech.

During the uprising, Heyerdahl claimed, the " Long Ears " ignited their moat and retreated behind it, but the " Short Ears " found a way around it, came up from behind, and pushed all but two of the " Long Ears " into the fire.

In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in Africa.

Apart from the primary aspects of the expedition, Heyerdahl deliberately selected a crew representing a great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that at least on their own little floating island, people could cooperate and live peacefully.

Heyerdahl accepted Snorri's story as literal truth, and believed that a chieftain led his people in a migration from the east, westward and northward through Saxony, to Fyn in Denmark, and eventually settling in Sweden.

This project generated harsh criticism and accusations of pseudo-science from historians, archaeologists and linguists in Norway, who accused Heyerdahl of selective use of sources, and a basic lack of scientific methodology in his work.

Her storyline sees her simultaneously become the object of Lex Luthor's ( Michael Rosenbaum ) obsessions-after she saved him from drowning in the dam's destruction-and Jimmy Olsen's ( Aaron Ashmore ) affections, suffer a bout of amnesia, discover her father's ( Christopher Heyerdahl ) sinister motives and become a target of evil android Brainiac ( James Marsters ).

The adventurer Thor Heyerdahl built two boats from papyrus, Ra and Ra II, in an attempt to demonstrate that ancient African or Mediterranean people could have reached America.

In his last book Jakten på Odin Thor Heyerdahl advanced a highly controversial idea postulating connections between Tanais and ancient Scandinavia.