I wonder. -- in other words, no disproof would follow the failure of his prediction.). But from whom? The interval between ceremonies may be forty, fifty or sixty years. Although we can occasionally claim victory (are there any alchemists left? [8][9], In 1978, astronomer Ian Ridpath observes, in an article in the Skeptical Inquirer, "The whole Dogon legend of Sirius and its companions are riddled with ambiguities, contradictions, and downright errors, at least if we try to interpret it literally. (OK, I'll bite--but if such a star is not discovered, Temple has risked no converse conclusions. The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. by Philip Coppens. Webplanet earth. To be specific they sound like the kinds of astronomical conclusions one might draw from studying the heavens through a small portable telescope. And does the Dogon mythology ever really say that Nommo, the founder What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. Carl. There is, WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. 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. Sirius B without the need of a telescope because of their special eyesight extraterrestrial visitor tells earthmen about the undiscovered Martian moons. York: Random House, 1995). Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. Figure 2. These same myths, Temple claims, identify a planet circling that star as the home of Nommo, an alien creature who founded the Dogon civilization. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. How did the Dogon obtain this knowledge? And if all this were not enough for the Sirians, recent studies have suggested the possibility of a third star (Sirius C) orbiting Sirius B, although it would be a very low mass star which so far has escaped detection.5 Stable planetary orbits may be very hard to find in the Sirian system. He was told that fishlike creatures called the Nommo had come to Earth from Sirius to civilizes its people. Tom Sever's "The Obsession with the Star Sirius," and editor Ron Oriti's "On Not Taking it Seriously." The ancient records are filled with unanswered astronomical questions -- including the "red Sirius" and the possible Sumerian Ea-Oannes references to the spectacular Vela-X supernova. [6] The claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. But was anything left out? By comparison, our own Sun was that old 3.4 billion years ago. (Temple claims missionaries didn't show up until 1949.) The difference in brightness between Sirius A and B is a factor of 10,000! MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. things. sigui, held by the Dogon every sixty years. 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). However, doubts have been raised about the reliability of Griaule and Dieterlen's work on which The Sirius Mystery is based,[4][5] and alternative explanations have been proposed. The Dogon. stars to the sun, the Alpha Centauri system. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. 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. to other visible stars near Sirius as recognition of the invisible The parts that bear at least a superficial resemblance to astronomical facts are most likely trimmings added in this century. I disagree. by Liam McDaid. by Liam McDaid. have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in Randi, James. What about Sirius? Concludes Sagan, "There are too many loopholes, too many alternate explanations for such a myth to provide reliable evidence of past extraterrestrial contact. The number "fifty" has great signifance in ancient myths. 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. 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. 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. contact with some ugly, amphibious* He made no secret of the fact that his intention was to redeem Feature Articles Dogon shame Did ancient gods from the Sirius star system visit an African tribe 5,000 years ago? ancient Egypt.*. This is a complicated issue, because several special interest groups each claim the Dogon for their own. With this, the Dogon mystery comes crashing down. "Legends of the Dogon: belief in a long-solved 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. Sirius figures prominently in the Dogon myths. 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. 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. 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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirius_Mystery. 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. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. "There is some evidence," he points out, "that the Dogon like to frame pictures with an ellipse, and that Temple may be mistaken about the claim that in Dogon mythology the planets and Sirius-B move in elliptical orbits." E. "Ancient Astronauts," in, McDaid, Liam. Nothing fuels religious extremism more than the belief that one has found the absolute moral truth. The two anthropologists who first studied the Dogon (Griaule and Deiterlen) conducted their research in the 1930s. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. S]V',H79aD>1 Q@d(FOY;"36y0Z{VXEJwOx._tto}#&i|HR-i4 implausible notions such as the claim that the Dogon got their knowledge The good news is that two of the first five entries were from skeptical websites (CSICOP and Bob Carrolls Skeptics Dictionary). He says the references are there but recorded in riddles which he alone has been able to decipher. 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. "Robert Temple on three different occasions, by mail and phone, attempted to get support from me and I steadfastly refused," Asimov wrote. good amount of discussion of Sirius in the scientific press in the '20s so Beware of mood swings. Could a remote African people have gained esoteric knowledge about the sky without having telescopes? A Search for Faint Companions to Nearby Stars Using the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2,. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. (2004). African thought. Europeans too believed that the "white dwarf' Sirius-B star was the heaviest thing in the universe, although in later years astronomers were to find This is true, but Sirius has about 25 times the luminosity of the Sun. interpreter. Try my free online Rune Readings! I certainly concur with the first of those sentences! Figure 1. 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 Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. 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. WebThe Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B Artist's conception of the Dogon's legendary Nommos. In the 1930s, when their research was carried out, Sirius B was known to have existed, even though it was only photographed in 1970. One problem with this idea is that Sirius B has been a white dwarf for at least tens of thousands of years. But my own measurements, which What about the fact that Sirius was recorded to be red in ancient records? Unfortunately he neglects to mention other bas-reliefs which show "fish-deer" and "fish-lions" and which consequently suggest that the fish motif was symbolic, not descriptive. It seems likely that we will never know for sure. The position of the 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. 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: Using spherical trig, I got 612.3 km for the Siwa-Behdet leg and 654.8 km for the Thebes-Behdet. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. No other anthropologist supports their opinions. that by the time Griaule arrived, the Dogon may have had a grounding in 20th Strangely, ancient records explicitly list Sirius as one of six "red stars." Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? 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? 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. But it seems that Griaule, a scientist, wanted to attribute to earlier civilisations more knowledge than they actually possessed. Fishs map and Hills map look similar only because the lines connecting the stars look the same. 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. Review. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. Did Oberg? 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.

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