(Copyright: R. Ibata (Strasbourg Observatory, ULP) et al., 2MASS, NASA). It's almost certainly a hoax. Worse still, hundreds of thousands of years ago, Sirius B was a dying red giant. For more then 20 years, The Sirius Mystery has influenced speculation about the possibility that our forefathers came from the stars. 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. Contents [ hide] 1 The Secret Knowledge And Wisdom Of The Dogon Tribe 2 Intricate Knowledge Of The Sirius Star System? The good news is that two of the first five entries were from skeptical websites (CSICOP and Bob Carrolls Skeptics Dictionary). For instance, the anthropologist Walter Van Beek, who studied the Dogon after Griaule and Dieterlen, found no evidence that the Dogon considered Sirius to be a double star and/or that astronomy was particularly important in their belief system. Am I getting too picky here? Journalist and skeptic James Oberg collected claims concerning Dogon mythology in his 1982 book UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries. He allegedly found the distances "to be nearly equal to one another" -- although no quantitative definition of "nearly equal" was ever offered. The Dogon and Sirius. No other anthropologist supports their opinions. 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. It's fascinating. in elliptical orbits of astronomical phenomena. So much for the Nommos. 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. I certainly concur with the first of those sentences! 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. The number "fifty" has great signifance in ancient myths. Dieterlen the Dogon also name a companion star, po tolo "Digitaria "Nowhere in his 295 page book does Temple offer one specific statement from the Dogon to substantiate his ancient astronauts claim." The immunity of pseudoscientists to criticism is well known to skeptics, yet I was curious. To quote Ancient Mysteries: While Temple, following Griaule, assumes that to polo is the invisible star Sirius B, the Dogon themselves, as reported by Griaule, say something quite different. To quote the Dogon: When Digitaria (to polo) is close to Sirius, the latter becomes brighter; when it is at its most distant from Sirius, Digitaria gives off a twinkling effect, suggesting several stars to the observer. This description of a very visible effect causes James and Thorpe to wonder as anyone reading this should do whether to polo is therefore an ordinary star near Sirius, not an invisible companion, as Griaule and Temple suggest. Griaule, Marcel. In this weeks eSkeptic, Liam McDaid examines these claims. "Robert Temple on three different occasions, by mail and phone, attempted to get support from me and I steadfastly refused," Asimov wrote. This proves that geodetic surveys of immense accuracy were thus practiced in ancient Egypt with a knowledge of the earth as a spherical body in space and projections upon it envisaged as part of the Sirius lore.". no conclusions of any kind." The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. Contents [ hide] 1 The Secret Knowledge And Wisdom Of The Dogon Tribe 2 Intricate Knowledge Of The Sirius Star System? Sagan further commented that he was surprised, given the freedom of viewpoint that Fish used, that her map didnt match the Hill map better!4. myths by confabulation." 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? Bullard, Thomas. Broca's Brain (New York: Random House, 1979), Indeed, in view of the Dogon fixation with Sirius it would surely be more surprising if they had not grafted on to their existing legend some new astronomical information gained from Europeans. The review was indeed consequently modified in parts where Temple explained portions of his book I may have misinterpreted. 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. this about a star that cannot be seen without telescopes, and he made no September 1976 saw I wonder. S]V',H79aD>1 Q@d(FOY;"36y0Z{VXEJwOx._tto}#&i|HR-i4 Fishs map and Hills map look similar only because the lines connecting the stars look the same. The diagram that Temple presents, however, is not the It was popularized in an episode from the In Search of television series narrated by Leonard Nimoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirius_Mystery. Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. The basic thesis is this: the Dogon (who live in the African nation of Mali, near the border with Burkina Faso) allegedly have long possessed arcane astronomical knowledge that should have been impossible for them to discover without modern telescopes. 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. Also, why would the Dogan people not divulge where they received such recent knowledge of transfer if they had of gotten this knowledge from Europeans. 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. 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. 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. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. [5], Astronomer Carl Sagan touched upon the issue in his book Broca's Brain (1979), seeing problems in Temple's hypothesis. One of the pieces of evidence Temple cites is a sand picture made by the Figure 1. This sounds significant and convincing until one measures the distance on a map and discovers an "immensely accurate equality" of a twenty percent difference! For instance, the anthropologist Walter Van Beek, who studied the Dogon after Griaule and Dieterlen, found no evidence that the Dogon considered Sirius to be a double star and/or that astronomy was particularly important in their belief system. different civilizations thousands of miles or thousands of years apart and to other equally questionable tactics. One problem with this idea is that Sirius B has been a white dwarf for at least tens of thousands of years. Webplanet earth. They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius. his informants in such a forceful leading manner that they created new (2004). sigui, held by the Dogon every sixty years. The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark (New She claimed an alien starship commander had originally shown it to her. See also von Dniken, Zecharia Sitchin, and UFO. 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? Nevertheless the Sumerian Oannes myths, first described by Sagan and Shklovskiy in Intelligent Life in the Universe in 1966, are as intriguing as ever. Sirius. "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". I disagree. 30-31. Beings of this type would be a bit like mermaids and mermen. Perhaps the 'sirens' are, figuratively, a chorus of mermaids recalled from earlier times.They are called in Greek Seiren.It is Damanhur is 521.0 km from Siwa and 625.9 km from Thebes, a deviation of 20%. 139-167. Carl Sagan agreed with Temple that the Dogon could not have acquired Of those websites, over 400 had been updated within the last three months. If so, I wonder why that passage was ever "worth pointing out" in the book in the first place. 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. 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 and Sirius. due to quantities of melanin (Welsing, F. C. 1987. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. 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]. things. the Sirius "Mystery" by Ian Ridpath, Skeptical Inquirer, Fall The position of the Somehow, Temple and I have never gotten our disputes off on the right foot. Saturn is not, as the Dogons insist, the farthest planet in the solar system. Temple offered another line of reasoning. Carl Sagan's contribution to this discussion was in his book Broca's Brain (1979). 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? 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. On this episode of MonsterTalk we chat with archeologist Dr. Ken Feder about giants, biblical archeology and one of the biggest hoaxes in American history. 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). The Symbolism of the Tarot: The Minor Arcana, The Symbolism of the Tarot: The Major Arcana, My Reading with Kristine from Psychic Source Review, Get the best Psychic Reading Ever Best Psychics Ive Reviewed, The Cathars: the struggle for and of a new Church, The Strange Stone Discs of Baian-Kara-Ula, William Blake: What paintings of visions come. He also gives public talks on astronomy and related fringe topics to international audiences. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. 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. Also it would take a very good set of lenses to see Sirius B, which has an apparent magnitude of 8.44 and a separation from Sirius A of 10 arcseconds (0.3% of a 1 angle) under the best conditions. The Dogon Revisited WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. 68-70. Sagan, And from what star system does the visitor come? 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. Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. And does the Dogon mythology ever really say that Nommo, the founder Melanin Conference, San Francisco, September 16-17, 1987"). they were not told by beings from the star Sirius.". Review. "The ancient peoples were not concealing information from us out of spite," he writes. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. informed the Dogon of Sirius B or "he misinterpreted their references Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. 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. (OK, I'll bite--but if such a star is not discovered, Temple has risked no converse conclusions. WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . The diagram is only convincing as a representation of Sirius B orbiting Sirius A when most of the original symbols are eliminated. Temple does not argue that contact with an advanced civilization is the only way that the Dogon could have obtained what he understood to be accurate information on Sirius B, but he indicates that he personally finds the theory of alien contact more convincing. Unfortunately the ancient records contain no clear, unambiguous references to this Sirius lore although the works of historians, astronomers and philosophers were explicit and detailed on innumerable other subjects. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. So where does this leave the mysteries of Sirius? ", A series of articles has appeared in the Griffith Observer, an astronomy magazin The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. So it merely remains for any interested reader to check and see which of us is correct. ), many debunked issues keep rising from the dead like vampires springing from their tombs. Ideas originally published in 1948, reprint (Oxford University Press 1997). Cuddle up with someone. Webplanet earth. Used under aCreative Commons license. Figure 2. The two anthropologists who first studied the Dogon (Griaule and Deiterlen) conducted their research in the 1930s. Though Temples work was challenged, at its core lay the original anthropological study of the Dogon by Griaule and Dieterlen, who describe the secret knowledge of Sirius B and Sirius C in their own book The Pale Fox. 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. to other visible stars near Sirius as recognition of the invisible 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. Temple's theory is heavily based on his interpretation of the work of ethnographers Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. WebNew evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for extraterrestrial visitation. In a recent book, The Once and Future Star (Hawthorn Books, 1977), George Michanowsky identifies "Oannes" as a Hellenized version of the Sumerian name Ea; he But if the error is real, it reflects on the only kind of hard, checkable, testable evidence Temple has offered for his theories. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. The book's advertising blurb quotes prolific science writer Isaac Asimov, who says, "I couldn't find any mistakes in this book. In that case the Dogon (and everyone else) would have had little trouble seeing both stars then. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. I published, showed the distances to be nowhere close, in error by tens of miles, at least ten percent -- hardly "immense accuracy. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. 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 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. But my own measurements, which Especially those who believe that our past is not at all how mainstream historians believe it to be, or indeed, tell us it was. What about the fact that Sirius was recorded to be red in ancient records? But it seems that Griaule, a scientist, wanted to attribute to earlier civilisations more knowledge than they actually possessed. Swift appears to have taken the idea of two close (although not necessarily small) moons of Mars from Voltaire's novel Micromegos in which an Bullard, Thomas. ), Another example: "The Dogon also mention a period of rotation of Sirius- Bone yearthis The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. Try my free online Rune Readings! extraterrestrial visitors? Were aliens, lost technology or something else entirely involved? pieces of evidence is the tribe's alleged knowledge of Sirius B, a companion to the star The Dogon. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. (Photo by John and Keturah. How is that the Dogan tribe has a culture that combines elements from 3 different ancient traditions "rituals of Judaism, practices of ancient Egypt, and a symbolic cosmology that's closely resembles Buddhism? 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. I suspect not.". The Nine also claim to be extraterrestrial beings from the star Sirius. As anthropologists have known for a long time, primitive tribes have a remarkable talent for absorbing interesting new stories into their traditional mythology. The alleged visitors from outer space Encyclopedia Galactica,, Benest, D. and J. L. Duvent. extraterrestrials, the Nommos, some 5,000 years ago. He points out that Griaule and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon secret knowledge. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. sources for Temple's story. Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? 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