ML138491
People
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
- Playback
- Not specified
Media notes
Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Dan Sandweiss. Timecode In: 00:00:04. Timecode out: 00:29:30. Notes: Thor Heyerdahl. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Dual-Channel Mono. Daniel Sandweiss on Thor Heyerdahl Don Smith January 19, 1999 DS 00:01:10 How do you pronounce Thor Heyerdahl? 00:01:12 DSw 00:01:13 (Pronounces.) DS 00:01:38 Start by telling me your name and what you do. 00:01:41 DSw 00:01:42 I¿m Dan Sandweiss and I¿m an Asst. Professor of Anthropology and Quaternary Studies at the University of Maine and my area of specialization is the archeology of Peru. DS 00:01:55 Heyerdahl¿s most famous theory is that South American Indians might have populated Polynesia. Is there anything to that theory? 00:01:06 DSw 00:02:08 There¿s something to it definitely. It seems very clear that most of Polynesia was populated by people from Southeast Asia , never the less, some domesticated plants from South America definitely got out into the islands by some kind of human contact during the Prehistoric Period. Before the Europeans were there so there was definitely contact. And there is still some debate if there was a population of South Americans before the Polynesians arrived. DS 00:02:37 And how would they have gotten there? 00:02:39 DSw 00:02:40 They would have presumably would have gotten there by the kind of rafts that Heyerdahl studied such as the Kon Tiki the raft that he made his famous voyage on in 1947. DS 00:02:51 Tukume¿ I understand you are associated with Heyerdahl there.00:03:03 DSw 00:03:04 Yes, I first met him in a hotel in Peru in 1988 completely by accident we spent a couple hours chatting in the bar in the evening and about 3 months later I got an offer to work full time at Tukume for three years which I did and since that time we¿ve been working together. DS 00:03:22 Are you still involved in Tukume? 00:03:24 DSw 00:03:25 That project is mostly closed down but Thor and I have become involved in a variety of other projects together. He¿s been involved in getting financing for some of my work in Peru including giving some money out of his own pocket and he also was the center for forming a new foundation called FERCO, the Foundation for Exploration and Research and Cultural Origins, actually made by some of his very wealthy Norwegian friends. It¿s a Canary Island based Foundation and we had our first activities last year and this year we are in the middle of a grant competition. We will be giving out about a $100,000 in grants this year. DS 00:04:00 What about the Tukume site why is that shut down, did you find everything ? 00:04:06 DSw 00:04:07 By no means, Tukume is a huge site and we could spend generations working there and continue to find new things. However, it¿s ¿ because it¿s such a large site it¿s an expensive place to work and it takes a great investment it time and in money and basically both of those ran out. DS 00:04:24 What is the site? Who lived there? 00:04:27 DSw 00:04:28 It was first built around 1100 AD by local people from a Valley called the Lombacki Valley, this is where it¿s located in Northern Peru. They began it as a Pyramid Center, probably a religious center. That¿s what we think at this point, and then around 1350 AD it was conquered by an empire from further south called the Chimu and they turned it in to their administrative center for this Northern part of Peru. And then around 1470 AD the famous Inca Empire conquered Tukume and they also used it for their administrative center for some section of Northern Peru and finally the Spaniards arrived in 1532 and within 15 yrs. or so the site was in ruins. DS 00:05:10 So the original inhabitants were very early people in Peru? 00:05:15 DSw 00:05:16 Well, actually I would say they were fairly late. 1100 AD is 10,000 yrs. after people arrived in South Ameri... (Notes truncated)
Technical information
- Recorder
- Microphone
- Accessories
Archival information
- Cataloged
- 23 Apr 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 23 Apr 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 23 Apr 2005 - Ben Brotman