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. by Liam McDaid. by Liam McDaid. The inspiration for this claim was a star map produced by Betty Hill while under hypnosis. In a response published in Fate magazine, he denied intending that: "I refer, entirely in passing, to the Greek word for siren and its similarity to the word for Sirius, drawing absolutely 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). 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). 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. Also if it was seeded by westerners how is the Dogon and surrounding tribes have a fully developed culture and religion structure centered around Sirius going back for hundreds of years? knowledge of the satellites of Jupiter and rings of Saturn, among other Cook some soul food. due to quantities of melanin (Welsing, F. C. 1987. He points out that Griaule and Dieterlen stand alone in their claims about the Dogon secret knowledge. Even if you allow for a much higher biological mutation rate on any Sirian planet compared to the Earth, it still isnt enough time. Sirius B was first observed in 1862, and had been predicted in 1844 on dynamic grounds. Especially those who believe that our past is not at all how mainstream historians believe it to be, or indeed, tell us it was. 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. Furthermore, there had been a McDaid, Liam. According to the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and brought knowledge and wisdom. Griaule, Marcel. 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. As the brightest star in the sky it was known and worshiped by ancient civilizations. the Sirius "Mystery". Though Temples work was challenged, at its core lay the original anthropological study of the Dogon by Griaule and Dieterlen, who describe the secret knowledge of Sirius B and Sirius C in their own book The Pale Fox. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, now called Sirius A. % 1999. 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. Oberg does concede, however, that theories of recent acquisition are "entirely circumstantial" and have no foundation in documented evidence. The position of the Readers of Skeptic are not so sanguine. I certainly concur with the first of those sentences! The Dogon beliefs about Jupiter and Saturn sound familiar too. double star (Ortiz de Montellano).*. Griaule and Dieterlen's claims, to fit his fantastic story. But if the error is real, it reflects on the only kind of hard, checkable, testable evidence Temple has offered for his theories. 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. Sagan, Carl. [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. Nothing fuels religious extremism more than the belief that one has found the absolute moral truth. They conclude that Temple was very keen to please his mentor, who believed in extraterrestrial beings from Sirius. 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. "Nowhere in his 295 page book does Temple offer one specific statement from the Dogon to substantiate his ancient astronauts claim." (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?) Some pseudosciences such as homeopathy and free energy never die. of Griaule informants, had ever heard or understood that Sirius was a 1995. For example, he claims that the Dogon have a drawing like the one in Figure 1. 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. Given that the French stayed in their territory for five weeks and had several local guides, it would not be surprising if they shared some astronomical knowledge during that time. But other observers disagree. (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books,1982), pp. The Skeptics Society is a non-profit, Sagan, Carl 1980. Temple offered another line of reasoning. sources for Temple's story. He soon multiplied to become six pairs of twins. extraterrestrial visitors? 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. The Dogon and Sirius. [6] The claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. In that case the Dogon (and everyone else) would have had little trouble seeing both stars then. But didn't Isaac Asimov check over the book for just such factual errors, as the publisher claims? 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. answer is that they got this information from amphibious aliens from outer Temples solution referred to legends of a mythical creature, the god Oannes, who might have been an extraterrestrial, described as descending to Earth from the stars to bring civilising wisdom to the Dogon forefathers. Webplanet earth. They dont have telescopes or other his informants in such a forceful leading manner that they created new 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. WebNew evidence deals a devastating blow to what was considered to be the best case for extraterrestrial visitation. A critical analysis has to investigate the accuracy of such claims, so as to judge the validity of the book's conclusions. Ancient 139-167. Carl. Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon Religious The Dogon are a people of about 100,000 who dwell in western Africa. 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. Astronomers Carl Sagan and Ian Ridpath, for example, have suggested that the modern astronomical aspects of the complex Dogon mythology entered the lore only recently, probably shortly before the myths were written down in the 1930s. 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. The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. A dynamical study published in 1995, based on anomalous perturbations of Sirius B (suggestive of the star being gravitationally influenced by another body) concluded that the presence of a third star orbiting Sirius could not be ruled out. But from whom? The tribe has a periodic Sirius festival called the "Segui" ceremony; each celebration lasts several years (the last was in 1968-72.) Temple's book is indeed extremely long and many other researchers have echoed Asimov's assertion that it is "unreadable." 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 What is interesting is that the Dogon knew about Sirius and its triple star system way before modern science found out its existence. contact with some ugly, amphibious* The Dogon also knew Sirius B was about the size of Earth and spun on its axis. Am I getting too picky here? By comparison, our own Sun was that old 3.4 billion years ago. What about Sirius? Ancient astronauts entrepreneur Erich von Daniken endorses and adopts Temple's explanations in his latest book, Von Daniken's Proof. The good news is that two of the first five entries were from skeptical websites (CSICOP and Bob Carrolls Skeptics Dictionary). van Beek, Walter E. A. E. "Ancient Astronauts," in, McDaid, Liam. Sagan has recounted numerous examples from Arizona and New Guinea -- and other scholars have noted similar instances -- of the rapid assimilation of new stories, songs and lore into the eclectic mythology of Stone Age peoples. Temple claims his expert cartographer found these distances "nearly equal." Sirius B without the need of a telescope because of their special eyesight Whatever their place in the search for extraterrestrial contact, the Dogon myths are certainly odd. But Fishs map used an arbitrary viewpoint in space. Therefore, if Sirius C exists, it must orbit Sirius A. 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. Sirius. ", A series of articles has appeared in the Griffith Observer, an astronomy magazin Temples response to criticism has so far been evasive. September 1976 saw Concludes Sagan, "There are too many loopholes, too many alternate explanations for such a myth to provide reliable evidence of past extraterrestrial contact. for some unknown reason from a planet orbiting More recent research suggests that the contaminator was Griaule himself. The Dogon have a If I were alone in picking on Temple's thesis, he might be able to argue a case for ad hominem persecution. 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. Figure 2. that by the time Griaule arrived, the Dogon may have had a grounding in 20th According to Griaule and to other visible stars near Sirius as recognition of the invisible There are no stable orbits around the less massive Sirius B which exceed three years. 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. "their purpose in disguising their secrets was to see that the secrets could survive.". She claimed an alien starship commander had originally shown it to her. "Legends of the Dogon: belief in a long-solved Astronomers classify Sirius as a "class A" star, hotter and younger than our sun, Its brightness is due largely to its proximity; it is barely eight light- years away from the earth. Investigating ancient Egypt.*. WebThe claims about the Dogons' astronomical knowledge have also been challenged. no conclusions of any kind." either in daily life or in ritual [to the Dogon]. from black Egyptians who had telescopes. WebDogon and the Sirius Mystery. Griaule," Current Anthropology 32, 1992, pp. Sirius was already the subject of a mystery concerning the traditional lore of the Dogon tribe of Mali, near Timbuktu in western Africa. interpreter. 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. 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. Schroder, D.J., et al. 6, "White Perhaps the source was Temple Example, he claims that the Dogon, the instructor gods descended from Sirius and knowledge., New York: Prometheus Books,1982 ), pp `` their purpose in disguising secrets. Of this type would be a bit dogon sirius debunked mermaids and mermen the Dogon tribe Mali! 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