Thor Heyerdahl
E551989
Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian explorer and ethnographer best known for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed a balsa wood raft across the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate the possibility of ancient transoceanic contact.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Thor Heyerdahl canonical | 9 |
| Tor Heyerdahl | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5837954 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Thor Heyerdahl Context triple: [Kon-Tiki Museum, dedicatedTo, Thor Heyerdahl]
-
A.
Christopher Heyerdahl
Christopher Heyerdahl is a Canadian actor known for his intense character roles in television series such as "Hell on Wheels," "Sanctuary," and "Stargate Atlantis."
-
B.
Martin Behaim
Martin Behaim was a German merchant, navigator, and cartographer best known for creating the Erdapfel, the oldest surviving terrestrial globe.
-
C.
Walter Sande
Walter Sande was an American character actor known for his prolific work in film and television from the 1930s through the 1960s, often appearing in Westerns and crime dramas.
-
D.
Oswald Jonas
Oswald Jonas was an Austrian-born music theorist and scholar best known for his work on and promotion of Heinrich Schenker’s analytical methods.
-
E.
Otto Nordenskjöld
Otto Nordenskjöld was a Swedish geologist and polar explorer best known for leading the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–1903).
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Thor Heyerdahl Target entity description: Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian explorer and ethnographer best known for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed a balsa wood raft across the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate the possibility of ancient transoceanic contact.
-
A.
Christopher Heyerdahl
Christopher Heyerdahl is a Canadian actor known for his intense character roles in television series such as "Hell on Wheels," "Sanctuary," and "Stargate Atlantis."
-
B.
Martin Behaim
Martin Behaim was a German merchant, navigator, and cartographer best known for creating the Erdapfel, the oldest surviving terrestrial globe.
-
C.
Walter Sande
Walter Sande was an American character actor known for his prolific work in film and television from the 1930s through the 1960s, often appearing in Westerns and crime dramas.
-
D.
Oswald Jonas
Oswald Jonas was an Austrian-born music theorist and scholar best known for his work on and promotion of Heinrich Schenker’s analytical methods.
-
E.
Otto Nordenskjöld
Otto Nordenskjöld was a Swedish geologist and polar explorer best known for leading the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–1903).
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (62)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
documentary filmmaker
ⓘ
ethnographer ⓘ explorer ⓘ human ⓘ |
| awardReceived | Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| awardReceivedFor | Kon-Tiki (1950 documentary film) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | brain tumor ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | Norway ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1914-10-06 ⓘ |
| dateOfDeath | 2002-04-18 ⓘ |
| describedIn | numerous biographies and documentaries ⓘ |
| educatedAt | University of Oslo NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| familyName | Heyerdahl NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
anthropology
ⓘ
experimental archaeology ⓘ oceanic exploration ⓘ |
| fullName | Thor Heyerdahl NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| givenName | Thor NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasChild |
Annette Heyerdahl
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Bjørn Heyerdahl NERFINISHED ⓘ Helene Elisabeth Heyerdahl NERFINISHED ⓘ Marianne Heyerdahl NERFINISHED ⓘ Thor Heyerdahl Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasHonor | Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Polynesian migration debates ⓘ |
| Kon-Tiki expeditionYear | 1947 ⓘ |
| Kon-TikiArrivalPoint | Raroia atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| Kon-TikiDeparturePoint | Callao, Peru NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| Kon-TikiDistanceSailed | approximately 6,900 km ⓘ |
| Kon-TikiDuration | 101 days ⓘ |
| Kon-TikiVesselType | balsa wood raft ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | Norwegian ⓘ |
| ledExpedition |
Easter Island archaeological expeditions
ⓘ
Kon-Tiki expedition NERFINISHED ⓘ Ra I expedition NERFINISHED ⓘ Ra II expedition ⓘ Tigris expedition NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor |
Kon-Tiki expedition
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Ra expeditions NERFINISHED ⓘ Tigris expedition NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Early Man and the Ocean NERFINISHED ⓘ Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft NERFINISHED ⓘ The Ra Expeditions NERFINISHED ⓘ The Tigris Expedition NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| occupation |
adventurer
ⓘ
archaeologist ⓘ author ⓘ ethnographer ⓘ explorer ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Larvik, Norway NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| placeOfDeath | Colla Micheri, Italy NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| proposedTheory | pre-Columbian transoceanic contact between South America and Polynesia ⓘ |
| RaVesselType | papyrus reed boat ⓘ |
| religion | agnostic ⓘ |
| residence |
Colla Micheri, Italy
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Tenerife, Canary Islands NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| spouse |
Jacqueline Beer
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Liv Coucheron-Torp NERFINISHED ⓘ Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subjectOf | Kon-Tiki Museum exhibitions ⓘ |
| TigrisVesselType | reed boat ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Thor Heyerdahl Description of subject: Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian explorer and ethnographer best known for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed a balsa wood raft across the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate the possibility of ancient transoceanic contact.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Tor Heyerdahl