OSLO, NORWAY—According to an AFP report, Norway’s Kon-Tiki Museum handed over human remains to Easter Island and Chilean officials at a ceremony in Oslo. The remains were taken from Easter Island by explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who traveled much of the Pacific Ocean on a reed raft called the Kon-Tiki in the 1950s. Heyerdahl and his crew collected more than 5,000 artifacts from Easter Island, with the understanding that they would one day be returned. Other items were returned in 1986 and in 2006. “My grandfather would be proud of what we are about to accomplish,” said museum director Liv Heyerdahl. Ceremonies are also planned for the arrival of the remains in Easter Island before reburial. To read about a new moai sculpture uncovered on Easter Island in 2023, go to "Around the World: Chile."
