Aku-Aku – Thor Heyerdahl (1958) (1st US ed)

S$65.00

Aku-Aku – Thor Heyerdahl (1958) (1st US ed)

S$65.00

Title: Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island

Author: Thor Heyerdahl

Publisher: Rand McNally, 1958. First American edition.

Condition: Hardcover, with dust jacket wrapped in plastic. Good. Even tanning to pages, with foxing to top edge. Inscription to ffep. With illustrations and photographic plates. 384pp., 9″ by 6″.

About the book (from Wikipedia):

Aku-Aku: the Secret of Easter Island is a 1957 book by Thor Heyerdahl published in English the following year. The book describes the 1955–1956 Norwegian Archaeological Expedition’s investigations of Polynesian history and culture at Easter Island, the Austral Islands of Rapa Iti and Raivavae, and the Marquesas Islands of Nuku Hiva and Hiva Oa. Visits to Pitcairn Island, Mangareva and Tahiti are described as well. By far the greatest part of the book tells of the work on Easter Island, where the expedition investigated the giant stone statues (moai), the quarries at Rano Raraku and Puna Pau, the ceremonial village of Orongo on Rano Kau, as well as many other sites throughout the island. Much of the book’s interest derives from the interaction of the expedition staff, from their base at Anakena beach, with the Easter Islanders themselves, who lived mainly in the village of Hanga Roa.

The book and a follow-up film of the same name made a major contribution to general public awareness of both the island and the statues.

About the author (from Wikipedia):

Thor Heyerdahl (6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. The expedition was designed to demonstrate that ancient people could have made long sea voyages, creating contacts between societies. This was linked to a diffusionist model of cultural development. Heyerdahl made other voyages to demonstrate the possibility of contact between widely separated ancient peoples, notably the Ra II expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984.

In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki Museum and the National Library of Norway in Oslo.