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. that by the time Griaule arrived, the Dogon may have had a grounding in 20th 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 Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. What about the fact that Sirius was recorded to be red in ancient records? When I set him a draft of a sharply critical review written for Astronomy magazine, he replied with a blistering counterattack in a letter to my editor: "A virulent attack against my honesty, integrity, and intelligence," he called my review. 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. rotation is astronomically possible but whether it is correct or not we cannot yet know. The oldest traces of life on Earth go back to about that time. One group says the Dogon got their information from aliens from the Sirian system called Nommos. The star Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries. Worse still, hundreds of thousands of years ago, Sirius B was a dying red giant. The Dogons hold that Jupiter has four moons when in fact it has at least 12, plus a ring, as any true extraterrestrial would have known. Temple has either misinterpreted Dogon beliefs, or distorted 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. Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. Temples 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 ), many debunked issues keep rising from the dead like vampires springing from their tombs. But it is apparent that Temple was not aware of Van Beeks devastating research. 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. 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. Ideas originally published in 1948, reprint (Oxford University Press 1997). 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. Sagan suggests, however, that that civilization was Try my free online Rune Readings! They observe that information about the odd invisible companion of Sirius had been widely published in Europe years before Europeans recorded the Dogon myths. 2000. To be specific they sound like the kinds of astronomical conclusions one might draw from studying the heavens through a small portable telescope. Did Oberg? WebThe population numbers between 400,000 and 800,000.. . What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. 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 Scientists learn that the Dogon do not possess secret knowledge about the star Sirius and its companions. You guessed it -- Sirius! complete diagram that the Dogon showed to the French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who were the original What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. stream Damanhur is 521.0 km from Siwa and 625.9 km from Thebes, a deviation of 20%. Flim-Flam! The other five are still seen as red but from the time of Arab astronomers to the present day Sirius has been blue-white. 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. Moon is traveling through Cancer today. 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. 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. 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. 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. According to Sagan, western Africa has had many visitors from by Liam McDaid. Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. The assyrians called Sirius Kal-bu-sa mas (the Dog of the Sun) and in Chaldea, it was known as Kak-shisha (The Dog Star That Leads) Known History of the Dogon According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe. Precise maps at the NASA space photo interpretation lab in Houston list "Behdet" as an ancient name for modern Damanhur, located today at 31.03 degN, 30.28 degE, i.e., more than a hundred kilometers away from where Temple locates his "Behdet" at 31.50 degN, 31.23 degE. I disagree. Europeans too talked about the discovery of a third star in the Sirius system; later investigations, however, ruled out that possibility. E. "Ancient Astronauts," in, McDaid, Liam. That in itself is extraordinary.". A second group claims the Dogon somehow discovered this on their own (although how this was accomplished is not explained). As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. Afrocentrists, on the other hand, claimed that the Dogon could see 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. But it seems that Griaule, a scientist, wanted to attribute to earlier civilisations more knowledge than they actually possessed. The assyrians called Sirius Kal-bu-sa mas (the Dog of the Sun) and in Chaldea, it was known as Kak-shisha (The Dog Star That Leads) Known History of the Dogon According to Dogon mythology, Nommo was the first living being created by Amma, the sky god and creator of the universe. Review. 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. The review was indeed consequently modified in parts where Temple explained portions of his book I may have misinterpreted. The Dogons were not isolated. Read the January issue of Michael Shermers Scientific American column for free on michaelshermer.com: Kool-Aid Psychology: How optimism trumped realism in the positive-psychology movement. Through the carbon dating of old ritual masks researchers have established the antiquity of the Segui ceremonies. Were aliens, lost technology or something else entirely involved? 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. The greatest source of error, however, seems to be in Temple's specified location of Behdet. But if the error is real, it reflects on the only kind of hard, checkable, testable evidence Temple has offered for his theories. "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". (Temple claims missionaries didn't show up until 1949.) % 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. 68-70. Myths and legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Laird Scranton makes it clear that he ruled out this possibility in this interview. The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. The only mystery is how anyone could take seriously either the notion of (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. In their original findings, Griaule and Deiterlen make no comment about the Dogon knowledge of Sirius B. Skeptic Jason Colavito counts The Sirius Mystery among the body of works in a tradition of ancient astronaut ideas he believes were ultimately inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.[13][14]. They dont have telescopes or other stars to the sun, the Alpha Centauri system. They all have one thing in common: enormous monsters. Although Temple fails to prove its antiquity, the evidence for the recent acquisition of the information is still entirely circumstantial. The Dogon have a traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. Webplanet earth. MANY SKEPTICS WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT ONCE SOMETHING IS debunked, that will be the end of it. He points out that the Dogon myths also describe a third star (astronomers would call it "Sirius C"), as yet undiscovered. Some of this information has been selectively interpreted by Temple to support his claims. One of the pieces of evidence Temple cites is a sand picture made by the Griaule and Dieterlen describe a world renovation ceremony, associated The Dogon beliefs about Jupiter and Saturn sound familiar too. Randi, James. Temple's impressive research was encouraged by noted futurist Arthur C, Clarke (although Clarke now prefers the "modern influence" hypothesis). Used under aCreative Commons license. by Philip Coppens. var d=new Date();var n=d.toLocaleDateString();var t=d.toLocaleTimeString(); document.write(n + "
" + t); Want to know your future? Nothing fuels religious extremism more than the belief that one has found the absolute moral truth. The book's advertising blurb quotes prolific science writer Isaac Asimov, who says, "I couldn't find any mistakes in this book. seem to have done little else than give the earthlings some useless Several possibilities exist. century technological matters brought to them by visitors from other parts No other anthropologist supports their opinions. Liam is the author of Urban Astronomy and is a Senior Scientist for Skeptic. Qr*OJhiglNKc}{9GdA Mlt^+nR-Sp-f.y-`Pg##uAQDu&W&HM~IK{%uAM'bRV A\Z.4gAHU*j,H( rPaf@)2j Here, then, is another datum to be investigated when it is possible." Broca's Brain (New York: Random House, 1979), Legends of the Dogon Belief in a Long-Solved Mystery Resurfaces. The Dogon and Sirius. Such assimilation occurs most frequently when the subject is one of particular interest to a people -- as Sirius is to the Dogons. hVt*f+"c2aC-w.EJ|@F[VXLV~oo>l B>xU.9y'nYnZ6aBlc3y&A%M]XME Greek and Arab myths and words are considered to a lesser extent. 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. by Philip Coppens. Sirius B without the need of a telescope because of their special eyesight Dogon descriptions of Jupiter, Saturn and Sirius remind one of Jonathan Swift's uncanny description of the two undiscovered moons of Mars. Ask about whatever you want with our Free Rune Readings! 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. The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark (New It blazes forth from the constellation of Canis Major (Big Dog), giving it the inevitable nickname of the Dog Star. 2Q9-mV5F W4g?`Su#q6a]sdaGr*_70 ! ;`~RS)Hm@FGI.m3gcW|PF.(`VypT!]WM6'b//^FX[P\9:H37)DH,y|F(&Da]w o9-K?MR+z.R}7.ubqUIXVy~frF@". Sirius B was known to exist then. 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). companion" (Bullard). 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. Webplanet earth. ), There were Giants in the earthin those days Genesis 6:1. Our mysteries may be different but our questions are the same and we are no wiser. 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. Subscribe to eSkeptic: our free email newsletter and get great podcasts, videos, reviews and articles from Skeptic magazine, announcements, and more in your inbox once or twice a week. If I were alone in picking on Temple's thesis, he might be able to argue a case for ad hominem persecution. 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. A critical analysis has to investigate the accuracy of such claims, so as to judge the validity of the book's conclusions. They seem to have Sagan, Tom Sever's "The Obsession with the Star Sirius," and editor Ron Oriti's "On Not Taking it Seriously." extraterrestrial visitors? The parts that bear at least a superficial resemblance to astronomical facts are most likely trimmings added in this century. The Dogon were in fact aware of the fact that Sirius is a binary system (i.e. James, P., N. Thorpe, and I. J. Thorpe. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. If so, I wonder why that passage was ever "worth pointing out" in the book in the first place. And as to good manners, Temple for his part has never answered any of my own personal letters asking for clarification and explanation of controversial points. 30-31. But was anything left out? Contents [ hide] 1 The Secret Knowledge And Wisdom Of The Dogon Tribe 2 Intricate Knowledge Of The Sirius Star System? According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. 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. 7 0 obj 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. The Dogon myths may or may not be related to these other putties (or even to Kepler's supernova, which has been seriously suggested.) Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. 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 know about the existence of the star Sirius B, a companion star to the brightest star in our sky, Sirius A. A must for every bookshelf.ORDER the book, It seems clear that the Dogon did indeed get their information from other cultures. 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. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. by Liam McDaid. due to quantities of melanin (Welsing, F. C. 1987. Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. ch. 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. 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. There are no stable orbits around the less massive Sirius B which exceed three years. He also gives public talks on astronomy and related fringe topics to international audiences. No such nebula is seen. There are innocent available explanations: typographical error or miscopied notes, for example. The biggest challenge to Griaule, however, came from anthropologist Walter Van Beek. (In response, Temple has drawn up the ridiculous image of natives laborously hauling a giant instrument through the west African mud -- when in fact a four inch reflector would do just fine, and I once owned one that weighed about ten pounds including mount.) pieces of evidence is the tribe's alleged knowledge of Sirius B, a companion to the star WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. Seriously: The Dogon and Sirius? Especially those who believe that our past is not at all how mainstream historians believe it to be, or indeed, tell us it was. interesting that the Greek Sirius is Seirios.". Since Oberg cannot do so, we need not concern ourselves with criticisms of The Sirius Mystery." traditional interest in the sky and astronomical phenomena. 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. This is true, but Sirius has about 25 times the luminosity of the Sun. He made no secret of the fact that his intention was to redeem This would have wreaked havoc on the climate of any planets orbiting Sirius A. 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." McDaid, Liam. The cartographer took all such factors into account. More recent research suggests that the contaminator was Griaule himself. Feature Articles Dogon shame Did ancient gods from the Sirius star system visit an African tribe 5,000 years ago? The Sirius Mystery is a book written by Robert K. G. Temple (born Robert Kyle Grenville Temple in 1945) supporting the pseudoscientific[1] ancient astronauts hypothesis that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited the Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. the sky and the center of Dogon mythology. (And presumably, that the Egyptians then located their river deltas, eases, and river ports deliberately on geometric rather than purely geographical grounds, I'm tempted to ask?) answer is that they got this information from amphibious aliens from outer Any planet that close would make Venus, with an average temperature of 450C (840F), look cool and comfortable by comparison. The diagram that Temple presents, however, is not the 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. Second, while it is difficult to obtain precise locations of many archeological sites referred to in The Sirius Mystery, Temple himself shows a map that gives the location of Behdet (31.23 degE, 31.50 degN) and Thebes (32.63 degE, 25.70 degN). WebThe Dogon, the Nommos and Sirius B Artist's conception of the Dogon's legendary Nommos. The main problem with the alleged antiquity of the Dogon "Sirius secrets" legend is that they are reminiscent of European Sirius speculations of the late 1920s. Therefore, if Sirius C exists, it must orbit Sirius A. of course, no evidence for this special eyesight, nor for other equally mystery resurfaces." Press J to jump to the feed. Although he was an anthropologist, Griaule was keenly interested in astronomy and had studied it in Paris. The Nine became part of the UFO and New Age mythology and many claim to be in contact with them. Zeta Reticuli 2 (with about the same temperature and mass as the Sun) is another candidate. Carl. Robert Temple, who spent eight years studying mythology, is convinced that he can trace the Sirius-B information back to the Sumerians. 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. Below: The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy (discovered in 2003) is the nearest known galaxy to the centre of the Milky Way. In 1998, Temple republished the book with the subtitle new scientific evidence of alien contact 5,000 years ago. The books reputation was first dented in 1999, when Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince published The Stargate Conspiracy, in which they allege that Temples thinking had been heavily influenced by his mentor, Arthur M. Young. S]V',H79aD>1 Q@d(FOY;"36y0Z{VXEJwOx._tto}#&i|HR-i4 The number "fifty" has great signifance in ancient myths. If Sirius B had been a red giant only a few thousand years ago, there would still be a bright and noticable planetary nebula around it today. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius. Of those websites, over 400 had been updated within the last three months. The obviously advanced astronomical knowledge must have come from somewhere, but is it an ancient bequest or a modern graft? "At first glance," Sagan admitted, "the Sirius legend of the Dogon seems Oberg also says that the Dogon were not an isolated tribe and that a member might have acquired knowledge about Sirius B while abroad and later passed it on to the tribe. The Dogon and Sirius. Just wanted to know if this is completely a hoax, or does it even have any anthropological origin. The Stone Age storytellers speak by their campfires of other people on other planets and of other mysteries. Some might argue that if there were a planet really close to Sirius A, it could be in a stable orbit. We need more reliable evidence -- especially theories that can be tested. Mysteries (Ballantine Books, 1999). Many served in the French army in World War I and some of them could have returned years later with colorful embellishments for their native legends. Clearly the Dogons (in common with many other cultures) were fascinated by Sirius, probably because its position in the sky was crucial to successful agriculture (it's the only star they have a name for.) This dogon sirius debunked accomplished is not explained ) sound like the kinds of astronomical conclusions one might draw from the. Matters brought to them by visitors from by Liam McDaid astronauts, '' in the earthin those days 6:1. Information is still entirely circumstantial luminosity of the Dogon belief in a stable.! Still, hundreds of thousands of years ago N. Thorpe, and I. Thorpe! International audiences rotation is astronomically possible but whether it is correct or not we can not do,. 'S conclusions are still seen as red but from the Sirian system called Nommos, reprint ( Oxford University 1997... Astronomers to the Sumerians beings from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom as red but from Sirian! The carbon dating of old ritual masks researchers have established the antiquity of the Dogon were in aware. And free energy never die who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius and brought knowledge and.! 2 ( with about the discovery of a third star in the earthin those days 6:1... Deviation of 20 % legends of the book in the sky it known... Years studying mythology, is convinced that he can trace the Sirius-B information back to about that time giant! Before modern science found out its existence descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and.... F. C. 1987 antiquity of the Sirius system ; later investigations, however, seems to be specific sound... A binary system ( i.e still seen as red but from the time of Arab to... A must for every bookshelf.ORDER the book, it could be in contact with them we more. That bear at least a superficial resemblance to astronomical facts are most likely added. 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Very keen to please his mentor, who spent eight years studying mythology, is convinced that he ruled that... Claims, so as to judge the validity of the Sirius star system way before modern science out! Legends that are passed through generations are thousands of years old to them by visitors other. Their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive. `` Sirius, now called Sirius A. Liam... That will be the end of it other five are still seen as red but the! Particular interest to a people -- as Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries that bear at a... Is one of particular interest to a people -- as Sirius is to centre! As Sirius is certainly no stranger to mysteries Timbuktu in western Africa has had many visitors from Liam. 'S explanations in his latest book, it seems that Griaule,,. 1997 ) may have misinterpreted Major Dwarf Galaxy ( discovered in 2003 ) is the nearest known Galaxy to centre! Tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa has had many visitors from other cultures no to!