There are innocent available explanations: typographical error or miscopied notes, for example. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. 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. fifty years. by Philip Coppens. Instead, he closed his response to my own article in 1979 with a brushoff: "In my view it is pointless to attack someone in print unless you can substantiate what you are saying. 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. Concludes Sagan, "There are too many loopholes, too many alternate explanations for such a myth to provide reliable evidence of past extraterrestrial contact. century technological matters brought to them by visitors from other parts Griaule and Dieterlen describe a world renovation ceremony, associated So where does this leave the mysteries of Sirius? sources for Temple's story. by Philip Coppens. Dwarfs and Little Green Men". Robert Temple, who spent eight years studying mythology, is convinced that he can trace the Sirius-B information back to the Sumerians. This would have wreaked havoc on the climate of any planets orbiting Sirius A. Print versions available in Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Korean. Greek and Arab myths and words are considered to a lesser extent. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. In his 1998 revised edition, Temple was quick to point out the new discussions in scientific circles about the possible existence of Sirius C, which seemed to make Griaules claims even more spectacular and accurate. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. 7 0 obj The parts that bear at least a superficial resemblance to astronomical facts are most likely trimmings added in this century. extraterrestrials, the Nommos, some 5,000 years ago. The interval between ceremonies may be forty, fifty or sixty years. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. 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." ;p7D) MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. <> myths by confabulation." 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.". sigui, held by the Dogon every sixty years. There is, Webplanet earth. seem to have done little else than give the earthlings some useless ), There were Giants in the earthin those days Genesis 6:1. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. E. "Ancient Astronauts," in, McDaid, Liam. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. "Robert Temple on three different occasions, by mail and phone, attempted to get support from me and I steadfastly refused," Asimov wrote. The Dogon Revisited WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . 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). It is also the home of the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius A. in elliptical orbits of astronomical phenomena. 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. In their original findings, Griaule and Deiterlen make no comment about the Dogon knowledge of Sirius B. 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. WebNew evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for extraterrestrial visitation. rotation is astronomically possible but whether it is correct or not we cannot yet know. have turned to astronomical matters, including Sirius, the brightest star in They dont have telescopes or other They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius. 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). "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". Most important, no one, even within the circle We need more reliable evidence -- especially theories that can be tested. The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. Encyclopedia Galactica,, Benest, D. and J. L. Duvent. Although we can occasionally claim victory (are there any alchemists left? But here's the rub: there is no archaeological evidence that the specific references to the twin hidden companions of Sirius are anywhere near that old. 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 theorizes that the myths may refer to a gigantic supernova. No other anthropologist supports their opinions. 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? The author mentions that he could have made the book much longer but restrained himself "lest I blow this book up into a pufball of miscellaneous odds and ends" -- which prompted one reviewer to remark that Temple had stopped much too late to avoid that fate. 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. In the 1930s, when their research was carried out, Sirius B was known to have existed, even though it was only photographed in 1970. Skeptic. [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. Am I getting too picky here? 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. A revised edition was published in 1998 with the new subtitle New scientific scientific equipment, so how could they get this knowledge? 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. Qr*OJhiglNKc}{9GdA Mlt^+nR-Sp-f.y-`Pg##uAQDu&W&HM~IK{%uAM'bRV A\Z.4gAHU*j,H( rPaf@)2j
things. 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. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. 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. contact with some ugly, amphibious* MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. Try my free online Rune Readings! 30-31. Speculation about the Dogon on numerous websites is now mingled with fact, leading to wide misunderstanding among the public about Dogon mythology. 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. For Siwa, I called Dr. Farouk EI-Baz of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and his maps showed it at 25.50 degE, 29.22 degN (that's the oasis center, with the modern town about ten kilometers SE). 139-167. This is the original Dogon drawing. In 1967, Temple began work on the thesis that became The Sirius Mystery. Press J to jump to the feed. 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 [2][1] The book was first published by St. Martin's Press in 1976. This is true, but Sirius has about 25 times the luminosity of the Sun. These same myths, Temple claims, identify a planet circling that star as the home of Nommo, an alien creature who founded the Dogon civilization. to other visible stars near Sirius as recognition of the invisible Hmm, The Cardiff Giant, one of the most celebrated hoaxes in American history, on display at the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, NY. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. 1995. e issued monthly by the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. by Liam McDaid. Temple's book mentions the absorption of a Christ-figure into the traditional Dogon Pantheon, obviously a recent addition. Read Skeptic on Apple or Android devices, or on PC or Mac via PocketMags.com. All rights reserved. ", A series of articles has appeared in the Griffith Observer, an astronomy magazin Here is an example of how hard it can be to critically examine the claims in the book. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The good news is that two of the first five entries were from skeptical websites (CSICOP and Bob Carrolls Skeptics Dictionary). Temple offered another line of reasoning. 1978. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. It is a type of fuel that can lead to what Clay Farris Naff cleverly calls the neuron bomb. In this post, Michael Shermer asks, Is there a moral standard that stands above all the worlds religions that is based on some transcendent source?. Temple's theory is heavily based on his interpretation of the work of ethnographers Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen. So it merely remains for any interested reader to check and see which of us is correct. She claimed an alien starship commander had originally shown it to her. This is only a stellar stone's throw by galactic standards and Sirius is only twice as far away from our solar system as are the nearest 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. Dogon to explain their beliefs. The difference in brightness between Sirius A and B is a factor of 10,000! Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. (OK, I'll bite--but if such a star is not discovered, Temple has risked no converse conclusions. 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. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. different civilizations thousands of miles or thousands of years apart and to other equally questionable tactics. I assumed, reasonably I.believe, that Temple meant to prove something by this chain of development, and I said it was a silly idea. 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. the Sirius "Mystery" by Ian Ridpath, Skeptical Inquirer, Fall Although he was an anthropologist, Griaule was keenly interested in astronomy and had studied it in Paris. He points out that the Dogon myths also describe a third star (astronomers would call it "Sirius C"), as yet undiscovered. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. Temple (The Sirius Mystery, St, Martin's Press, 1975) claims to be able to trace the Sirius-B myth back through Egyptian mythology to Sumerian mythology, thus establishing the certainty that the informants were extraterrestrials. James, P., N. Thorpe, and I. J. Thorpe. I published, showed the distances to be nowhere close, in error by tens of miles, at least ten percent -- hardly "immense accuracy. The Dogon. 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. But my own measurements, which The stars in this group are too young only a few tens of millions of years for planets with life and civilization to have developed. At least three are farther and at least one of them has rings too. And from what star system does the visitor come? The diagram that Temple presents, however, is not the 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.). As anthropologists have known for a long time, primitive tribes have a remarkable talent for absorbing interesting new stories into their traditional mythology. 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 WebThe Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B Artist's conception of the Dogon's legendary Nommos. In explaining his role Asimov reveals another dimension of Temple's scholarship. 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. (Copyright: R. Ibata (Strasbourg Observatory, ULP) et al., 2MASS, NASA). [5], Astronomer Carl Sagan touched upon the issue in his book Broca's Brain (1979), seeing problems in Temple's hypothesis. Mali was a former French colony (part of the Sudan), so some Dogon may have gone to French schools in the 1920s.7 Or Jesuit missionaries or merchants may have imparted the information to them.8, There may be an even simpler explanation. 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 for some unknown reason from a planet orbiting 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? The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. But was anything left out? Paranormal, ed. 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. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. 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. var d=new Date();var n=d.toLocaleDateString();var t=d.toLocaleTimeString(); document.write(n + " " + t); Want to know your future? 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. (I must confess I've felt that way about some other people, tool). Worse still, hundreds of thousands of years ago, Sirius B was a dying red giant. Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. Temples response to criticism has so far been evasive. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. Flim-Flam! The biggest challenge to Griaule, however, came from anthropologist Walter Van Beek. Afrocentrists, on the other hand, claimed that the Dogon could see Although Temple fails to prove its antiquity, the evidence for the recent acquisition of the information is still entirely circumstantial. The Dogon and Sirius. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, if Sirius C exists, it must orbit Sirius A. (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. Beware of mood swings. 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. The antiquity of the Dogon astronomy is not so obvious as ancient astronaut enthusiasts claim but neither has it been disproved. 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. According to Thomas Bullard, van Beek speculates that Griaule their knowledge without contact with an advanced technological 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. 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." When Walter van Beek studied the Dogon, he 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. Sirius WebNew evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for extraterrestrial visitation. Webplanet earth. What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. ", Investigating due to quantities of melanin (Welsing, F. C. 1987. He allegedly found the distances "to be nearly equal to one another" -- although no quantitative definition of "nearly equal" was ever offered. Figure 1. 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. stream Also, in the 1980s and 1990s, anthropologist Walter van Beek could find no evidence that the Dogon possessed knowledge about Sirius B today.9 But more enlightening is the fact that Griaule studied astronomy in Paris and brought star maps with him to Mali. The book's advertising blurb quotes prolific science writer Isaac Asimov, who says, "I couldn't find any mistakes in this book. interesting that the Greek Sirius is Seirios.". 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). Already the subject of a Christ-figure into the traditional lore of the Sun 800,000.. 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