Even in the most optimistic reading of this tale, the Dogon know no more than we knew about the Solar System and nearby stars in the 1930s, which is about the time that Griaule and Deiterlen first interacted with them. Afrocentrists, on the other hand, claimed that the Dogon could see The "mystery" that is central to the book is how the Dogon allegedly acquired knowledge of Sirius B, the white dwarf companion star of Sirius A, invisible to the naked eye. Found in the constellation after which it is named, it is about 25,000 light years from the sun and 42,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. S]V',H79aD>1 Q@d(FOY;"36y0Z{VXEJwOx._tto}#&i|HR-i4 WebAlso there is the fact that they described the Nommo as fish people and you find all kinds of half man/half fish - serpent imagery all over the Mediterranean. One group says the Dogon got their information from aliens from the Sirian system called Nommos. The Dogon legend connected with Sirius, wrote Ridpath, "is riddled with ambiguities, contradictions, and downright errors, at least if we try to interpret it literally." If a European had visited the Dogon in the 1920's and 1930's, conversation would likely have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and the center of Dogon mythology. The immunity of pseudoscientists to criticism is well known to skeptics, yet I was curious. by Philip Coppens. A revised edition was published in 1998 with the new subtitle New scientific In their original findings, Griaule and Deiterlen make no comment about the Dogon knowledge of Sirius B. Also if it was seeded by westerners how is the Dogon and surrounding tribes have a fully developed culture and religion structure centered around Sirius going back for hundreds of years? Either way, the original purity of the Dogon-Sirius story is itself a myth as it is highly likely that Griaule contaminated their knowledge with his own. 1978. He says the references are there but recorded in riddles which he alone has been able to decipher. Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? Lets start with the first idea, proffered by Robert Temple.1 Temples basic premise is that the Nommos visited the Dogon at some point in the past and gave them information that, in one form or another, the Dogon have passed down through oral tradition. Through the carbon dating of old ritual masks researchers have established the antiquity of the Segui ceremonies. But didn't Isaac Asimov check over the book for just such factual errors, as the publisher claims? Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? The greatest source of error, however, seems to be in Temple's specified location of Behdet. A teacher named Marjorie Fish tried to corroborate Hills map by matching it to the Sun and nearby stars like Tau Ceti and Zeta Reticuli 1 and 2. The two anthropologists who first studied the Dogon (Griaule and Deiterlen) conducted their research in the 1930s. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious African Observers of the Universe: The Sirius Question. In, Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. 1996. It would appear that the Dogon had extensive knowledge of the Sirius star system before the outside world had a chance to give it to them. Inevitably one must ask, if the Dogons had heard good stories about Sirius from other sources, would they ignore them or would they quickly adopt them into their own cultural myths? More recent research suggests that the contaminator was Griaule himself. In other words, the Dogon tribe would not only need the knowledge but also a telescope in order for them to have the information they already seemed to possess. One additional disturbing note: That distance has been computed based on a true geodetic oblate spheroid, but even assuming a flat surface would only have introduced an error of a few tenths of one percent at most (Temple obviously didn't know that, or he wouldn't have asserted that measurements even less accurate than that were proof that ancients took Earth's sphericity into account.). Van Beek actually spoke to some of Griaules original informants; he noted that though they do speak about sigu tolo [interpreted by Griaule as their name for Sirius itself], they disagree completely with each other as to which star is meant; for some, it is an invisible star that should rise to announce the sigu [festival], for another it is Venus that, through a different position, appears as sigu tolo. We may never be able to reconstruct the exact route by which the Dogon received their current knowledge, but out of the confusion at least one thing is clear: Because Sirius B moves from 8 to 31 AU distance from Sirius A, it is unlikely that planets orbiting Sirius A would have stable orbits. the Sirius "Mystery". In September 1980, Dr. Philip C. Steffey did an in-depth analysis of Dogon astronomical traditions in "Some Serious Astronomy in the 'Sirius Mystery,' " which criticized Temple's book as "inadequate and full of factual errors and misrepresentation of critical material. Its appearance in the dawn sky over Egypt warned of the impending Nile floods and the summer's heat and marked the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. (Photo by John and Keturah. McDaid, Liam. Ask about whatever you want with our Free Rune Readings! But other observers disagree. James, Peter and Nick Thorpe. Temple claims that bas-reliefs of the Sumerian demigod Oannes, which depict a "fish man," prove Nommo, whom the author identifies as the ancestor of the Dogon Nommo myths, was an amphibious extraterrestrial. To penetrate this supposed disguise (which might not be a disguise at all, other classical scholars maintain), Temple resorts to ancient puns, to hidden meanings, to "garbled versions" which he must amend to fit the theory, to the exchange of consonants in innocent-looking words, to similar-sounding words from They observe that information about the odd invisible companion of Sirius had been widely published in Europe years before Europeans recorded the Dogon myths. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. A must for every bookshelf.ORDER the book, It seems clear that the Dogon did indeed get their information from other cultures. All rights reserved. Were aliens, lost technology or something else entirely involved? Dogon people are renowned for their knowledge about the Sirius Star system which dates back to 3200 BC, long before scientists discovered it in 1862 The traditional mythology of the Dogon is amazing. characteristics. Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. He has written of Temples belief that present-day authorities are unwilling to set aside the blinkers of orthodoxy, unable to admit the validity of anything that lies outside their field or that offers a challenge to the status quo. Obviously, no Earth-based species was flying to other stars back then! "wished to affirm the complexity of African religions and questioned ch. Sagan has recounted numerous examples from Arizona and New Guinea -- and other scholars have noted similar instances -- of the rapid assimilation of new stories, songs and lore into the eclectic mythology of Stone Age peoples. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. "At first glance," Sagan admitted, "the Sirius legend of the Dogon seems Schroder, D.J., et al. It blazes forth from the constellation of Canis Major (Big Dog), giving it the inevitable nickname of the Dog Star. For example, he claims that the Dogon have a drawing like the one in Figure 1. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. "[10] Ridpath states that while the information that the Dogon probably gained from Europeans to some extent resembles the facts about Sirius, the presumed original Dogon knowledge of the star is very far from the facts. rotation is astronomically possible but whether it is correct or not we cannot yet know. They dont have telescopes or other Could Sirius B have been a red giant a few thousand years ago? So it merely remains for any interested reader to check and see which of us is correct. Laird Scranton makes it clear that he ruled out this possibility in this interview. It is also the home of the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius A. "Nowhere in his 295 page book does Temple offer one specific statement from the Dogon to substantiate his ancient astronauts claim." WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. "The ancient peoples were not concealing information from us out of spite," he writes. WebThe Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B Artist's conception of the Dogon's legendary Nommos. astronomical information. The Dogon. 1995. ancient Egypt.*. interesting that the Greek Sirius is Seirios.". But was anything left out? the Sirius "Mystery" by Ian Ridpath, Skeptical Inquirer, Fall I disagree wit deeee72. WebThe Dogon understanding of astronomy was comparatively modern but has several known misconceptions - it entirely lines up with the European understanding as of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the discovery of relativity. Second, while it is difficult to obtain precise locations of many archeological sites referred to in The Sirius Mystery, Temple himself shows a map that gives the location of Behdet (31.23 degE, 31.50 degN) and Thebes (32.63 degE, 25.70 degN). WebAlso there is the fact that they described the Nommo as fish people and you find all kinds of half man/half fish - serpent imagery all over the Mediterranean. After being surprised that an astromomy association would, after all this time, bother to publish such an article, I did a web search and found that in 1997 Robert Temple published a second edition of the book that started it all TheSirius Mystery in which he addressed none of the main criticisms that had been directed against the first edition, published in 1976. companion" (Bullard). Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The mystery of the ancient "red" Sirius also remains baffling. Astronomers classify Sirius as a "class A" star, hotter and younger than our sun, Its brightness is due largely to its proximity; it is barely eight light- years away from the earth. Y%gbsPFur[%X7Sz Temple offered another line of reasoning. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. This is the original Dogon drawing. 6, "White Appleby also believes there exists a modern arrogance that cannot countenance the idea that ancient civilisations might have been scientifically superior. WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . This means that it will have a lifetime on the stellar Main Sequence, which is where stars spend 90% of their lives, of about 1.2 billion years. theorizes that the myths may refer to a gigantic supernova. Another claim: that in Egypt the oasis of Siwa and the ancient Nile City of Thebes are both equidistant from the shrine city of Behdet, in the delta -- and the same exact distance, too. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. They have a traditional belief in a heliocentric system and If a European Some astronomers speculate that the white dwarf Sirius B might have been a flaming red giant only 2000 years ago although current astrophysical theories decree that any such transformation in less than 100,000 years is impossible. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. seem curious. The parts that bear at least a superficial resemblance to astronomical facts are most likely trimmings added in this century. Webplanet earth. [12] According to Oberg, the Dogons' astronomical information resembled the knowledge and speculations of late 1920s Europe, suggesting that the Dogon were influenced by European visitors before their mythology was recorded in the 1930s. ), Another example: "The Dogon also mention a period of rotation of Sirius- Bone yearthis As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. sun and the phases of the moon are more pertinent for Dogon reckoning. In 1998, Temple republished the book with the subtitle new scientific evidence of alien contact 5,000 years ago. The books reputation was first dented in 1999, when Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince published The Stargate Conspiracy, in which they allege that Temples thinking had been heavily influenced by his mentor, Arthur M. Young. implausible notions such as the claim that the Dogon got their knowledge WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . stream MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. Since Oberg cannot do so, we need not concern ourselves with criticisms of The Sirius Mystery." "Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel they were not told by beings from the star Sirius.". of Griaule informants, had ever heard or understood that Sirius was a 7 0 obj their knowledge without contact with an advanced technological MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. They point out that the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians used spherical lenses6 (even though they are a bad choice to use in telescopes try seeing an image through a glass bead). [15] An apparent "third star" observed in the 1920s is now confirmed as a background object,[16] something previously suggested by Holberg in 2007: Benest and Duvent found that stable orbits with a period of up to six years exist around Sirius A. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. %PDF-1.4 She claimed an alien starship commander had originally shown it to her. Precise maps at the NASA space photo interpretation lab in Houston list "Behdet" as an ancient name for modern Damanhur, located today at 31.03 degN, 30.28 degE, i.e., more than a hundred kilometers away from where Temple locates his "Behdet" at 31.50 degN, 31.23 degE. Several possibilities exist. Perhaps the source was Temple In 1965, Arthur Young gave Robert Temple a French article on the secret star lore of the Dogon, an article written by two French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. E. "Ancient Astronauts," in, McDaid, Liam. To recapitulate: Griaule claimed to have been initiated into the secret mysteries of the male Dogon, during which they allegedly told him of Sirius (sigu tolo in their language) and its two invisible companions. He also gives public talks on astronomy and related fringe topics to international audiences. The tribe has a periodic Sirius festival called the "Segui" ceremony; each celebration lasts several years (the last was in 1968-72.) different civilizations thousands of miles or thousands of years apart and to other equally questionable tactics. Zeta Reticuli 2 (with about the same temperature and mass as the Sun) is another candidate. pieces of evidence is the tribe's alleged knowledge of Sirius B, a companion to the star At least three are farther and at least one of them has rings too. 1999. Such words would have more persuasion behind them (to me they're merely an emotional appeal to sympathy) if Temple had ever admitted anywhere in print that he had found (or had been shown) any errors in his book or articles or public statements -- but if he has done so, I haven't become aware of them. Its appearance in the dawn sky over Egypt warned of the impending Nile floods and the summer's heat and marked the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. Some surviving informants of Griaule who spoke to van Beek made it clear that the Dogon learned about Sirius B from him!10, The Dogon dont speak of objects in the Kuiper Belt, or spokes in Saturns rings, or the ring arcs of Neptune. In 1952, Young was one of nine people present during the first contact with the Council, an event initiated by Andrija Puharich, the man who brought Israeli spoonbender Uri Geller to America. Finally, he asked me point-blank if I could point out any errors in it and partly out of politeness, partly to get rid of him, and partly because I had been able to read very little of the book so that the answer was true, I said I could not point out any errors. One unproven aspect of the reported Dogon knowledge of the Sirius system is the assertion that the Dogon knew of another star in the Sirius system, Emme Ya, or "larger than Sirius B but lighter and dim in magnitude." But it seems that Griaule, a scientist, wanted to attribute to earlier civilisations more knowledge than they actually possessed. Also if it was seeded by westerners how is the Dogon and surrounding tribes have a fully developed culture and religion structure centered around Sirius going back for hundreds of years? For more then 20 years, The Sirius Mystery has influenced speculation about the possibility that our forefathers came from the stars. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. Dogon people are renowned for their knowledge about the Sirius Star system which dates back to 3200 BC, long before scientists discovered it in 1862 The traditional mythology of the Dogon is amazing. Knowledge of the stars is not important Is Sirius a Triple Star?, Adams, H. H. 1983. He points out that Griaule and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon secret knowledge. The alleged visitors from outer space In this weeks eSkeptic, Liam McDaid examines these claims. The oldest traces of life on Earth go back to about that time. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. found no evidence they knew Sirius was a double star or that Sirius B is He shows a total ignorance or disregard for almost every fact in my book, and there is hardly a single thing in his review which is remotely accurate." The proof is supplied by (the Odyssey), where Helios is said to possess 7 herds of 50 cows each and 7 herds of 50 sheep, a transparent allegory of the days and nights of the year.") The Bad Archaeology page on the Sirius Mystery has summarize the basic details well: In 1976, Robert K G Temple (born 1945), an American living in the UK, published what was to become a seminal work of Bad Archaeology, The Sirius Mystery. Cook some soul food. Encyclopedia Galactica,, Benest, D. and J. L. Duvent. Its appearance in the dawn sky over Egypt warned of the impending Nile floods and the summer's heat and marked the beginning of the Egyptian calendar. 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