The expedition, led by Henri Deslandres, stayed in the field for five weeks, and it is reasonable that during this time many contacts with the locals took place, and that relatively modern astronomical knowledge was then transferred. Could Sirius B have been a red giant a few thousand years ago? Dogon to explain their beliefs. 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. Melanin Conference, San Francisco, September 16-17, 1987"). He says the references are there but recorded in riddles which he alone has been able to decipher. ancient Egypt.*. For example, he claims that the Dogon have a drawing like the one in Figure 1. Young was a fervent believer in the Council of Nine, a mysterious group of channelled entities that claim to be the nine creator gods of ancient Egypt. If I were alone in picking on Temple's thesis, he might be able to argue a case for ad hominem persecution. found no evidence they knew Sirius was a double star or that Sirius B is ", Investigating Hmm, The Cardiff Giant, one of the most celebrated hoaxes in American history, on display at the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, NY. Classical mythology has been a Rorschach test into which people have projected nearly any notion that appealed to them. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. As James and Thorpe point out, he took star maps along with him on his field trips as a way of prompting his informants to divulge their knowledge of the stars. The second idea, championed by Afrocentrist historians, is that the Dogons either found out about Sirius B on their own or learned about it from the Egyptians. Other ancient astronomical records make no mention of Sirius being red. [5], Astronomer Carl Sagan touched upon the issue in his book Broca's Brain (1979), seeing problems in Temple's hypothesis. of earth and transmitted in conversation. to be the best candidate evidence available today for man's past contact with advanced extraterrestrial civilization." WebNew evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for extraterrestrial visitation. 6, "White hVt*f+"c2aC-w.EJ|@F[VXLV~oo>l B>xU.9y'nYnZ6aBlc3y&A%M]XME Griaule either The Nine became part of the UFO and New Age mythology and many claim to be in contact with them. A revised edition was published in 1998 with the new subtitle New scientific WebThe Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B Artist's conception of the Dogon's legendary Nommos. 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: Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. 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.). This is the original Dogon drawing. The former study also concluded that while a triple system for Sirius could not be fully eliminated, the probability was low. Here is an example of how hard it can be to critically examine the claims in the book. They all have one thing in common: enormous monsters. amphibious aliens or telescopic vision due to melanin. in elliptical orbits of astronomical phenomena. seem to have done little else than give the earthlings some useless Cook some soul food. The antiquity of the Dogon astronomy is not so obvious as ancient astronaut enthusiasts claim but neither has it been disproved. Some of this information has been selectively interpreted by Temple to support his claims. Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. The Dogon beliefs about Jupiter and Saturn sound familiar too. 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. Noah Brosch explained in his book Sirius Matters that cultural transfer could have taken place between 19th century French astronomers and Dogon tribe members during the observations of the solar eclipse on 16 April 1893. Dieterlen the Dogon also name a companion star, po tolo "Digitaria 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). Review. From the findings of Van Beek and the authors of Ancient Mysteries, it is clear that Griaule himself was responsible for the creation of a modern myth; one which, in retrospect, has created such an industry and near-religious belief that the scope and intensity of it can hardly be fathomed. Qr*OJhiglNKc}{9GdA Mlt^+nR-Sp-f.y-`Pg##uAQDu&W&HM~IK{%uAM'bRV A\Z.4gAHU*j,H( rPaf@)2j
In 1977 two radio astronomers were interested enough in the Sirius mystery to direct their telescopes at the star system in hopes of picking up any artificial radio signals. I did more searching and found that for the keywords Dogon and Sirius B, almost 1000 websites were listed. Temples solution referred to legends of a mythical creature, the god Oannes, who might have been an extraterrestrial, described as descending to Earth from the stars to bring civilising wisdom to the Dogon forefathers. Cuddle up with someone. WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . The Dogon are supposed to have known that Sirius B orbits Sirius and that a complete orbit takes WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. 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. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. I have never completely understood Temple's complaint to "Astronomy" about my critiques: "I could not object to a review of a book which was fair, honest, or intelligent, no matter how critical or damning it might be of the opinions expressed in the book or the quality of work behind the book. (And presumably, that the Egyptians then located their river deltas, eases, and river ports deliberately on geometric rather than purely geographical grounds, I'm tempted to ask?) 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. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. "We have in the Dogon information a predictive mechanism which it is our duty to test, regardless of our preconceptions." by Liam McDaid. of Griaule informants, had ever heard or understood that Sirius was a Nigel Appleby whose book Hall of the Gods was withdrawn from publication has admitted to being tremendously influenced by Temples Sirius Mystery. They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius. Sirius B was known to exist then. History Debunked then goes on to demonstrate the type of pseudo-scientific nonsense this has lead to by providing a link to an Ethnomathematics paper and reading out its conclusion. It is important to look at the assumptions and implications of the claims made about the Dogon. Laird Scranton makes it clear that he ruled out this possibility in this interview. Griaule and Dieterlen describe a world renovation ceremony, associated ;WI)hK>U/sW_: v* &73DUI*y|07s^gQ7ni[khi4o2vA[a20?D-C[;,!vgejZE-,I51.cWS,?4#_}dpU4I[, w.Mi>Z@iOa:ia](i}29pit+ K#x>0nzDS%c7iN}%37Y-f 1Yvq'Nm=~-%#bO*O44*4%Aj Wi Temple lists a number of astronomical beliefs held by the Dogon that Further, "The fact that the Dogon do not talk of another planet with rings beyond Saturn [i.e., Uranus, whose rings were discovered in 1977--and the rings of Jupiter weren't discovered until after Sagan's book was written, although they would have been clearly visible to any arriving extraterrestrial spacecraft] suggests to me that their informants were European, not extraterrestrial." 2Q9-mV5F W4g?`Su#q6a]sdaGr*_70 ! ;`~RS)Hm@FGI.m3gcW|PF.(`VypT!]WM6'b//^FX[P\9:H37)DH,y|F(&Da]w o9-K?MR+z.R}7.ubqUIXVy~frF@". Such criteria suggest that these periodic festivals have been going on for at least 600 years and possibly much longer. 2000. Sounds like you're grasping at straws. star" (Sirius B) and describe its density and rotational By comparison, our own Sun was that old 3.4 billion years ago. [2][1] The book was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1976. Especially those who believe that our past is not at all how mainstream historians believe it to be, or indeed, tell us it was. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirius_Mystery. by Philip Coppens. 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. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. As an example, Sagan believes that because the Dogon seem to have no knowledge of another planet beyond Saturn which has rings, their knowledge is therefore more likely to have come from European, and not extraterrestrial, sources.[11]. Whatever their place in the search for extraterrestrial contact, the Dogon myths are certainly odd. One problem with this idea is that Sirius B has been a white dwarf for at least tens of thousands of years. The alleged visitors from outer space All agree, however, that they learned about the star from Griaule. Van Beek states that this creates a major problem for Griaules claims. Pseudoarchaeology book by Robert K. G. Temple, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Sirius_Mystery&oldid=1135262588, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 23 January 2023, at 16:12. % You dont have to watch too many Fantasy Channel (formerly known as the History Channel) specials on ancient astronauts before youll be told about the primitive African Dogon of Mali and their advanced astronomical knowledge bestowed, of course, by extraterrestrials. WebRe: Dogon Sirius claim debunked - Graham Hancock Official Website Mysteries Taken from [ library.thinkquest.org] According to the Dogon priests, Sirius is orbited by a tiny secret star that they refer to as 'po', which traces an elliptical path around Sirius taking 50 years to The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. We need more reliable evidence -- especially theories that can be tested. This would have wreaked havoc on the climate of any planets orbiting Sirius A. Temples Even if you allow for a much higher biological mutation rate on any Sirian planet compared to the Earth, it still isnt enough time. Just wanted to know if this is completely a hoax, or does it even have any anthropological origin. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. The Dogon also hold a big sigui ceremony every 60 years, which some interpret as representing the period of time it takes Sirius B to go around Sirius A. [7] Others, such as Marcel Griaule's daughter Genevive Calame-Griaule and an anthropologist, Luc de Heusch, came to criticize Van Beek's dismissal as "political" and riddled with "unchecked speculation", demonstrating a general ignorance of Dogon esoteric tradition. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in had visited the Dogon in the 1920's and 1930's, conversation would likely scientific equipment, so how could they get this knowledge? Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. Worse still, hundreds of thousands of years ago, Sirius B was a dying red giant. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. 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. The oldest traces of life on Earth go back to about that time. The Dogons were not isolated. The mystery of the ancient "red" Sirius also remains baffling. But didn't Isaac Asimov check over the book for just such factual errors, as the publisher claims? interesting that the Greek Sirius is Seirios.". These same myths, Temple claims, identify a planet circling that star as the home of Nommo, an alien creature who founded the Dogon civilization. (Photo by John and Keturah. Carl. 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. Dogon descriptions of Jupiter, Saturn and Sirius remind one of Jonathan Swift's uncanny description of the two undiscovered moons of Mars. On top of that, there is another star, Sirius B, orbiting at an average distance of about 20 AU (1 AU is the distance between the Earth and Sun). October 1977 saw Marvin Luckermann's "More Sirius Difficulties," on ancient calendar systems and an alternate, non- extraterrestrial explanation for the ancient fascination with the number fifty (the article quotes Michael Astour's book Hellenosemitics as saying, "This exorbitant figure, very popular in Greek myths, has its explanation: it is the number of seven-day weeks in one lunar year. WebThe Dogon reportedly related to Griaule and Dieterlen a belief that the Nommos were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (see the main article on the Dogon for a discussion of their astronomical knowledge). Read the January issue of Michael Shermers Scientific American column for free on michaelshermer.com: Kool-Aid Psychology: How optimism trumped realism in the positive-psychology movement. The Dogon are a people of about 100,000 who dwell in western Africa. 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. James and Thorpe understate the problem when they say this is very worrying. Griaule claimed that about 15 per cent of the Dogon tribe possessed this secret knowledge, but Van Beek could find no trace of it in the decade he spent with the Dogon. To quote James and Thorpe: As for Sirius B, only Griaules informants had ever heard of it. Was Griaule told by his informants what he wanted to believe; did he misinterpret the Dogon responses to his questions? Ask about whatever you want with our Free Rune Readings! I suspect not.". Why would Europeans feel compelled that they needed to discuss astronomy with such a primitive tribe and why would this transfer of knowledge that only lasted 5 weeks have such an impact on the Dogan people that they would include it in their cultural practices? [3] These beings, who are hypothesized to have taught the arts of civilization to humans, are claimed in the book to have originated the systems of the Pharaohs of Egypt, the mythology of Greek civilization, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, among other things. The diagram is only convincing as a representation of Sirius B orbiting Sirius A when most of the original symbols are eliminated. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. The Dogon people had been visited by European visitors many times, most notably when they hosted French astronomers looking to find a good vantage point to observe the solar eclipse of 1893. the Dogon. At the latitude of Egypt, over distances of several hundred kilometers, planetary curvature introduces distortions only on the order of fractions of kilometers, not the tens of kilometers worth of inaccuracies I found in Temple's claim. Concluded Ridpath: "The parts of the Dogon knowledge that are admittedly both ancient and profound, particularly the story of Nommo and the concept of twinning, are the parts that bear least relation to the true facts about Sirius. Sirius B was first observed in 1862, and had been predicted in 1844 on dynamic grounds. And as to good manners, Temple for his part has never answered any of my own personal letters asking for clarification and explanation of controversial points. A must for every bookshelf.ORDER the book, It seems clear that the Dogon did indeed get their information from other cultures. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. Of Jupiter, Saturn and Sirius B was first published by St. Martin 's Press in 1976 interesting the... 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