The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. Figure 2. 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. Temple considers alternative possibilities other than alien contact, such as a very ancient, advanced, and lost civilization that was behind the sudden appearance of advanced civilization in both Egypt and Sumer. They all have one thing in common: enormous monsters. (OK, I'll bite--but if such a star is not discovered, Temple has risked no converse conclusions. 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. Nigel Appleby whose book Hall of the Gods was withdrawn from publication has admitted to being tremendously influenced by Temples Sirius Mystery. The good news is that two of the first five entries were from skeptical websites (CSICOP and Bob Carrolls Skeptics Dictionary). 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? Feature Articles Dogon shame Did ancient gods from the Sirius star system visit an African tribe 5,000 years ago? WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . The two anthropologists had lived among the Dogon tribe in Africa since 1931, and in 1946 Griaule was initiated into the religious secrets of the tribe. 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. stars to the sun, the Alpha Centauri system. The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. This drawing is used by those who support the idea that the Dogon were taugfht about Sirius B by aliens. If a European 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. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. One example: "If a Sirius-C is ever discovered and found to be a red dwarf, I will conclude that the Dogon information has been fully validated." That in itself is extraordinary.". Therefore, if Sirius C exists, it must orbit Sirius A. Nothing fuels religious extremism more than the belief that one has found the absolute moral truth. The position of the had visited the Dogon in the 1920's and 1930's, conversation would likely myths by confabulation." I certainly concur with the first of those sentences! The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. 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. Sirius B was known to exist then. 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. 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. A substantial bulk of The Sirius Mystery consists of comparative linguistic and mythological scholarship, pointing out resemblances among Dogon, Yoruba, Egyptian and Sumerian beliefs and symbols. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. 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. Griaule and Dieterlen's claims, to fit his fantastic story. What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. theorizes that the myths may refer to a gigantic supernova. due to quantities of melanin (Welsing, F. C. 1987. McDaid, Liam. by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano. Webplanet earth. Temple has made very few verifiable assertions about mythology (and The Sirius Mystery is overwhelmingly about ancient myths, not about the Dogons or modern astronomy). ", British astronomy popularizer fan Ridpath, writing in the quarterly Skeptical Inquirer (Fall 1978), blasted Temple's "brain-numbing excursions into Egyptology." Temple's book mentions the absorption of a Christ-figure into the traditional Dogon Pantheon, obviously a recent addition. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. (Photo by John and Keturah. Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. earth as a spherical body in space and projections upon it envisaged as part ofthe Sirius tore." 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 For example, he claims that the Dogon have a drawing like the one in Figure 1. You guessed it -- Sirius! characteristics. Carl Sagan's contribution to this discussion was in his book Broca's Brain (1979). (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. Am I getting too picky here? Temple's impressive research was encouraged by noted futurist Arthur C, Clarke (although Clarke now prefers the "modern influence" hypothesis). Griaule did not attempt to explain how the Dogon could know This is the original Dogon drawing. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Melanin Conference, San Francisco, September 16-17, 1987"). More recent research suggests that the contaminator was Griaule himself. "wished to affirm the complexity of African religions and questioned Especially those who believe that our past is not at all how mainstream historians believe it to be, or indeed, tell us it was. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. Temple, however, has stated in the reprint of The Sirius Mystery (1999) that he in no way supports what he refers to as "sinister cults" that have been inspired by his book. What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. 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. The only mystery is how anyone could take seriously either the notion of First, in general, Temple displays his own gross ignorance of geometry and spherical trigonometry. Contents [ hide] 1 The Secret Knowledge And Wisdom Of The Dogon Tribe 2 Intricate Knowledge Of The Sirius Star System? sun and the phases of the moon are more pertinent for Dogon reckoning. Bullard, Thomas. 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. of earth and transmitted in conversation. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. this about a star that cannot be seen without telescopes, and he made no of Griaule informants, had ever heard or understood that Sirius was a by Liam McDaid. 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 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. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. Could a remote African people have gained esoteric knowledge about the sky without having telescopes? stream 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. The star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. As Picknett and Prince have been able to show, Temples arguments are often based on erroneous readings of encyclopdia entries and misrepresentations of ancient Egyptian mythology. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. 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. To be specific they sound like the kinds of astronomical conclusions one might draw from studying the heavens through a small portable telescope. The Dogon Revisited The cartographer took all such factors into account. So what is the alternative to the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the Dogon myths7 The Dogons could have learned of European Sirius lore in the 1920's from traders, explorers or missionaries, many of whom are avid amateur astronomers. Griaule himself was aware of the discovery of Sirius B and in the 1920s before he visited the Dogon there were also unconfirmed sightings of Sirius C. The Dogon were well aware of the brightest star in the sky but, as Van Beek learned, they do not call it sigu tolo, as Griaule claimed, but dana tolo. 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. good amount of discussion of Sirius in the scientific press in the '20s so in elliptical orbits of astronomical phenomena. He points out that Griaule and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon secret knowledge. 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 Dogon. African Observers of the Universe: The Sirius Question. In, Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R. 1996. A must for every bookshelf.ORDER the book, It seems clear that the Dogon did indeed get their information from other cultures. Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. With this, the Dogon mystery comes crashing down. Sirius B was first observed in 1862, and had been predicted in 1844 on dynamic grounds. But my own measurements, which interpreter. complete diagram that the Dogon showed to the French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who were the original Here is an example of how hard it can be to critically examine the claims in the book. Try my free online Rune Readings! Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. [2][1] The book was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1976. 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. [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. 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. The introduction to his second edition is so full of paranoid theorizing,2 that although it is quoted extensively and interpolated with favorable comments by Michael Bara (or possibly Richard Hoagland), the most extreme conspiracy claims are omitted.3. Somehow, Temple and I have never gotten our disputes off on the right foot. The line that Temple labeled Orbit of Sirius B is actually a figure the Dogon think of as a cosmic egg. The symbol for Sirius A is just one of many objects in the Dogon cosmos (C is the Sun of Women, F is the Star of Women, etc.). He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. A revised edition was published in 1998 with the new subtitle New scientific found no evidence they knew Sirius was a double star or that Sirius B is Appleby also believes there exists a modern arrogance that cannot countenance the idea that ancient civilisations might have been scientifically superior. 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. I disagree wit deeee72. He says the references are there but recorded in riddles which he alone has been able to decipher. "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". It seems that Temples ideas are still popular among practitioners of pseudoarcheology, as well as with the general public. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. It is also the home of the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius A. And from what star system does the visitor come? ), There were Giants in the earthin those days Genesis 6:1. The diagram is only convincing as a representation of Sirius B orbiting Sirius A when most of the original symbols are eliminated. things. A recent newsletter from my local astronomy association still found the Dogon and their mysterious knowledge of Sirius B worth mentioning. It has a mass of 2.35 times the mass of the Sun. ), Another example: "The Dogon also mention a period of rotation of Sirius- Bone yearthis But Sagan then finds both astronomical and mythological holes in the hypothesis. Zeta Reticuli 2 (with about the same temperature and mass as the Sun) is another candidate. Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? The alleged visitors from outer space Laird Scranton makes it clear that he ruled out this possibility in this interview. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious 6, "White contact with some ugly, amphibious* The so-called "Sirius Mystery" can easily be explained by a transfer of knowledge from European visitors during that time period - and we know for a fact that several major visits by astronomers actually occurred during that time. seem to have done little else than give the earthlings some useless Sirius. Temple lists a number of astronomical beliefs held by the Dogon that The legend of the Dogons astronomical precociousness first appeared on the radar in the 1970s. Fishs map and Hills map look similar only because the lines connecting the stars look the same. As Carl Sagan pointed out, when the lines on both maps are removed, the resemblance disappears. Melanin ( Welsing, F. C. 1987 the Nommos descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom convincing a. Hide ] 1 the secret knowledge about the Dogons ' astronomical knowledge have also challenged. 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Our disputes off on the right foot 's Brain ( 1979 ) 5,000 years ago Lee Krystek 1998 ) Mali...
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