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. I assumed, reasonably I.believe, that Temple meant to prove something by this chain of development, and I said it was a silly idea. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. Sirius B was known to exist then. And does the Dogon mythology ever really say that Nommo, the founder 30-31. He has written of Temples belief that present-day authorities are unwilling to set aside the blinkers of orthodoxy, unable to admit the validity of anything that lies outside their field or that offers a challenge to the status quo. 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. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. The antiquity of the Dogon astronomy is not so obvious as ancient astronaut enthusiasts claim but neither has it been disproved. He also gives public talks on astronomy and related fringe topics to international audiences. from black Egyptians who had telescopes. The number "fifty" has great signifance in ancient myths. Is Sirius a Triple Star?, Adams, H. H. 1983. 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. "Lecture 1st The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. 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.). If a European 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. by Liam McDaid. Melanin Conference, San Francisco, September 16-17, 1987"). 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. Griaule, Marcel. By comparison, our own Sun was that old 3.4 billion years ago. Other ancient astronomical records make no mention of Sirius being red. Temple sees the existence of Sirius C as a vindication of one of his claims, although it should be remembered that multiple star systems are common (like Alpha Centauri, with its three stars). Conversations With 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. She claimed an alien starship commander had originally shown it to her. Somehow, Temple and I have never gotten our disputes off on the right foot. The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. 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. But Sagan then finds both astronomical and mythological holes in the hypothesis. A critical analysis has to investigate the accuracy of such claims, so as to judge the validity of the book's conclusions. WebThe star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. The third explanation is that they learned the information from Europeans or in European schools. WebAccording to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. 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]. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. Greek and Arab myths and words are considered to a lesser extent. In explaining his role Asimov reveals another dimension of Temple's scholarship. Although Temple fails to prove its antiquity, the evidence for the recent acquisition of the information is still entirely circumstantial. These same myths, Temple claims, identify a planet circling that star as the home of Nommo, an alien creature who founded the Dogon civilization. I did more searching and found that for the keywords Dogon and Sirius B, almost 1000 websites were listed. If so, I wonder why that passage was ever "worth pointing out" in the book in the first place. The Nine also claim to be extraterrestrial beings from the star Sirius. Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? 2000. 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. 139-167. "[10] Ridpath states that while the information that the Dogon probably gained from Europeans to some extent resembles the facts about Sirius, the presumed original Dogon knowledge of the star is very far from the facts. It has a mass of 2.35 times the mass of the Sun. Figure 2. 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. to be the best candidate evidence available today for man's past contact with advanced extraterrestrial civilization." [18], He also used the second edition of his book to complain about what he said was "the extreme and virulent hostility towards me by certain security agencies, most notably the American ones."[19]. But now, in another recent publication Ancient Mysteries by Peter James and Nick Thorpe this mystery is also uncloaked as a hoax or a lie perpetrated by Griaule. [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. Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. 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. That's one major characteristic of classical pseudo-science, its ability to incorporate any result and its ability to be immune from disproof from any result. Temple claimed that the Dogon knew about two smaller stars that are closely related to Sirius Sirius B and Sirius C. The mystery was how they had obtained this knowledge, as these companion stars cannot be seen by the unaided eye. 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 Press J to jump to the feed. extraterrestrial visitor tells earthmen about the undiscovered Martian moons. Temple's book and the debates that followed its release publicized the existence of the Dogon tribe among many New Age followers and proponents of ancient astronaut theories. Such is the case with the Dogon a West African people and their supposed advanced and inexplicable knowledge of the stars Sirius A and Sirius B. Sirius A is the brightest star in our sky. <> Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? 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. Afrocentrists, on the other hand, claimed that the Dogon could see Temple's book mentions the absorption of a Christ-figure into the traditional Dogon Pantheon, obviously a recent addition. If I were alone in picking on Temple's thesis, he might be able to argue a case for ad hominem persecution. They observe that information about the odd invisible companion of Sirius had been widely published in Europe years before Europeans recorded the Dogon myths. 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 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. Hmm, The Cardiff Giant, one of the most celebrated hoaxes in American history, on display at the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown, NY. In 1991, Van Beek led a team of anthropologists to Mali and declared that they found absolutely no trace of the detailed Sirius lore reported by the French anthropologists. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. The second problem is that ancient writers seemed to use color for stars in a way different from the way that we do (they described Pollux, Arcturus, and Capella as red a modern observer would call them yellow-orange, orange, and yellow, respectively). The Dogon beliefs about Jupiter and Saturn sound familiar too. They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius. Other Temple claims, including some wild assertions from The Secrets of the Great Pyramid, can as easily be checked and as easily demolished. So it merely remains for any interested reader to check and see which of us is correct. 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). Beware of mood swings. Furthermore, there had been a He was told that fishlike creatures called the Nommo had come to Earth from Sirius to civilizes its people. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. 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. Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. The book presents the hypothesis that the Dogon people of Mali, in West Africa, preserve a tradition of contact with intelligent extraterrestrial beings from the Sirius star system. 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. "Legends of the Dogon: belief in a long-solved fifty years. In that case the Dogon (and everyone else) would have had little trouble seeing both stars then. The biggest challenge to Griaule, however, came from anthropologist Walter Van Beek. Griaule and Dieterlen's claims, to fit his fantastic story. At least three are farther and at least one of them has rings too. Y%gbsPFur[%X7Sz 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. 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. Zeta Reticuli 2 (with about the same temperature and mass as the Sun) is another candidate. One of the pieces of evidence Temple cites is a sand picture made by the 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. According to Sagan, western Africa has had many visitors from It's fascinating. their knowledge without contact with an advanced technological The Dogon legend connected with Sirius, wrote Ridpath, "is riddled with ambiguities, contradictions, and downright errors, at least if we try to interpret it literally." It was very unlikely that the Dogon had learned of this stars existence from Westerners prior to the visit by Griaule and Dieterlen. He made no secret of the fact that his intention was to redeem 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. Modern astronomers have discovered the remains of the supernova Vela-X in a constellation which would have been visible in the low southern sky from Sumer. myths by confabulation."