Gilliatt Gurgle
08-14-2011, 08:54 PM
Finished The RA Expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl (about a month ago)
What an amazing journey across the Atlantic to the Americas on bundles of papyrus, retracing a journey that Heyerdahl theorized was made several thousand years ago by the Egyptians. The book had been in the family library for years along with Aku Aku and Kon Tiki the latter two of which ended up in siblings’ hands.
Heyerdahl, a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, set out to prove a possible link between ancient Egyptian civilization and the New World. Was it possible that the Egyptians could have sailed across the Atlantic to South America on papyrus sailing vessels influencing the development of ancient South American culture? The evidence Heyerdahl presents will give pause if only for a moment. Notwithstanding the plausibility of African influence on the Olmec and Incan civilizations, it is the exploits of the journey as told through Heyerdahl’s writing that really kept the pages turning. Seven men, seven nationalities, a pet monkey named Safi and Sinbad, a duck initially slated for a celebratory dinner, spent two months on the high seas riding the Atlantic on the back of the Canary current.
For me , the seafaring adventure at times reached the tenor of Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, but with happier outcome. Actually the first “RA” didn’t quite make it, due to an oversight of a stern detail found among the “blue print” relief images the ancient Egyptians left behind. In this case, second time’s a charm; RA II was constructed employing the same ancient techniques along with the lessons learned from RA I and it successfully crossed the Atlantic from Safi Morocco to Barbados.
A great non-fictional read for the adventure minded with a bent toward ethnography.
A few quotes from “The RA Expeditions”:
“A reed flutters in the wind.
We break it off.
It floats. It can bear a frog.
Two hundred thousand reeds flutter in the wind.
A whole meadow bellows like a green cornfield along the shore.”
“Carlo had quickly revealed himself as the vessel’s supreme knot expert, quite used to both sleeping and eating suspended on a rope. Now he enthusiastically served hot coffee and the cold chicken legs we had brought with us and informed me gleefully that life at sea was just like life on the mountaintops: the same fellowship with nature, the same challenging duel with the elements, the same joje de vivre and necessity for quick solutions to unexpected problems.”
“Sun and moon rolled westward in turn to show us the way. The lonely night watches gave us in full measure that timeless perception of eternity that I had experienced on Kon Tiki. Starry sky and night-black water. The immutable constellations sparkled above us, and just as brightly beneath us on the shining phosphorescence glittered: the living plankton glowed like sparks of neon on the soft dark carpet on which we were floating.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEFWr5svgX8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfnXms4s17I
.
What an amazing journey across the Atlantic to the Americas on bundles of papyrus, retracing a journey that Heyerdahl theorized was made several thousand years ago by the Egyptians. The book had been in the family library for years along with Aku Aku and Kon Tiki the latter two of which ended up in siblings’ hands.
Heyerdahl, a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, set out to prove a possible link between ancient Egyptian civilization and the New World. Was it possible that the Egyptians could have sailed across the Atlantic to South America on papyrus sailing vessels influencing the development of ancient South American culture? The evidence Heyerdahl presents will give pause if only for a moment. Notwithstanding the plausibility of African influence on the Olmec and Incan civilizations, it is the exploits of the journey as told through Heyerdahl’s writing that really kept the pages turning. Seven men, seven nationalities, a pet monkey named Safi and Sinbad, a duck initially slated for a celebratory dinner, spent two months on the high seas riding the Atlantic on the back of the Canary current.
For me , the seafaring adventure at times reached the tenor of Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, but with happier outcome. Actually the first “RA” didn’t quite make it, due to an oversight of a stern detail found among the “blue print” relief images the ancient Egyptians left behind. In this case, second time’s a charm; RA II was constructed employing the same ancient techniques along with the lessons learned from RA I and it successfully crossed the Atlantic from Safi Morocco to Barbados.
A great non-fictional read for the adventure minded with a bent toward ethnography.
A few quotes from “The RA Expeditions”:
“A reed flutters in the wind.
We break it off.
It floats. It can bear a frog.
Two hundred thousand reeds flutter in the wind.
A whole meadow bellows like a green cornfield along the shore.”
“Carlo had quickly revealed himself as the vessel’s supreme knot expert, quite used to both sleeping and eating suspended on a rope. Now he enthusiastically served hot coffee and the cold chicken legs we had brought with us and informed me gleefully that life at sea was just like life on the mountaintops: the same fellowship with nature, the same challenging duel with the elements, the same joje de vivre and necessity for quick solutions to unexpected problems.”
“Sun and moon rolled westward in turn to show us the way. The lonely night watches gave us in full measure that timeless perception of eternity that I had experienced on Kon Tiki. Starry sky and night-black water. The immutable constellations sparkled above us, and just as brightly beneath us on the shining phosphorescence glittered: the living plankton glowed like sparks of neon on the soft dark carpet on which we were floating.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEFWr5svgX8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfnXms4s17I
.