Secret knowledge of the Dogon tribe. Tribe from Sirius

In northwestern Africa lives the mysterious Dogon tribe.

They worship the star Sirius and firmly believe that the distant ancestor of the Nom-mo tribe was a half-man, half-snake who arrived on a flying ship with one of the planets in the vicinity of Sirius...

All this can be mistaken for exotic legends, if not for one amazing circumstance - the Dogon have long possessed accurate and extensive astronomical knowledge, completely incredible for a backward African tribe.
And even the wild, almost primitive Dogon knew that Sirius was a double star long before European autonomists...

The old sorcerer looked sadly at the strange white man and began his story in a quiet, barely audible voice:
“Amma created everything that exists from the smallest particles of po.”
All the things that Amma created originate from a small grain of “po”. Starting from the smallest, all things are created by Amma, adding the same elements. Amma begins to create all things as small as “po”; then he adds new portions of small “pos” to the created things. As Amma connects the grains "by", the thing becomes bigger and bigger
After all things came into being, the great god created the first being.
His head was like the head of a snake with red eyes and a forked tongue, but this snake had flexible arms and they were called Nommo anagonno. And there were four of them: Nommo di, Nommo titiyain, O Nommo and Ogo.
Wow, he didn’t wait for the Creator to complete his work, he built a ship and set off on a journey through the stars. Twice he left his home world.
The first time Amma turned his ark into the ground. But the persistent Ogo built a new one and again set off in flight from his home star Sigitolo. The wind hidden in the “po” grains urged him on until he found himself on the ground.
In our world, he turned into a pale fox. Enraged, Amma sacrificed one of the Nommo anagonno and destroyed everything Ogo had created, collecting everything released into the "po". The Creator decided to populate the empty land, and Nommo spun the new ark on a huge copper chain, and then set off through a hole in the sky. In 60 rooms there were earthly beings, and everything around us, and how we should live.
We know what was in the first 22 rooms, we don’t know the rest. When the time comes, knowledge will come about those who remain.”
...Marcel Griaule feverishly wrote down the old man's notes. Who would have thought that these primitive savages - a strange tribe scattered throughout the southern provinces of Mali - would begin to talk about the ancestors of people who flew from outer space.
When Griol and his companions first entered the Dogon village, the locals who saw the white people timidly hid in their houses and only the bravest ones looked out from behind the slightly open doors. The stony streets were covered with a carpet of nettles. Towers of stone and straw rose everywhere, which turned out to be barns.
Several men met the travelers and led them to the “toguna” - the men's house. The “house” turned out to be a primitive shed made of sheaves of dried millet with a terribly low roof. This was done on purpose - if a heated argument breaks out and it comes to a fight, the arguers will not be able to straighten up to their full height. The roof is supported by 8 columns in the form of skeletons - human skeletons symbolized the ancestors of the Dogon. Near the “togunu” there is a house covered with carvings, with jewelry and skulls embedded in the wall - the dwelling of a shaman. To the surprise of the whites, the shaman looked at the newcomers with an indifferent look, as if the “palm-faces” came to the village every day and had become quite tired of him...
The Dogons did not make secrets of their knowledge, and for 10 years Griol and his assistant greedily wrote down the stories of the shamans and elders of the tribe. They slowly reported amazing things - about distant stars, aliens from outer space, about how the Dogon people lived for many centuries waiting for the contents of the remaining rooms of the Nommo ship to be revealed to them.
Lords of Dead Crag
The Dogon came to these lands in the 16th century, displacing the Thelemic tribes.
Thelemas left behind a dark memory in the form of the mysterious Cliff of the Dead. The Europeans who heard stories about him at first thought that all this was an ordinary myth drawn by the excited consciousness of savages. However, it later turned out that the Cliff of the Dead really exists. ­
American journalist David Robertson recalled his visit to this terrible place without any enthusiasm: “In the brownish-yellow twilight, I cautiously walked over human bones that crunched under my feet. The 30 m high rock hanging overhead is cut through by a niche. Ten people could hardly squeeze into it, but in some incomprehensible way it hides three thousand skeletons in its gloomy depths. Among the piles of bones, faded dusty rags can be seen here and there.”
Today the Dogon people number approximately 800 thousand people. They are extremely unsociable and prefer to live away from the bustle of the world, to cultivate the land, hiding their villages on plateaus and in secret valleys.
At the same time, they do not favor not only strangers, but even their fellow tribesmen. This is what led to a peculiar linguistic phenomenon. Despite their small numbers, the Dogon use... 35 dialects!
Sanga is considered the central settlement, a kind of capital. In fact, this settlement is no different from all the others except for its size. In it, just like in any other village, there are “togunu” and family houses built in the shape of a human body. The living room of the “genie” represents the head, the side rooms represent the arms, and the central hall represents the “torso”. Another common structure near Dogon settlements are special houses where women spend their “critical days.”
The Dogons are born farmers. They cherish every piece of land and every plant - even the baobabs have their own names here. Hunting is not held in high esteem here. The rare hunters of the tribe who leave the village at night in search of game are considered desperate daredevils and almost reckless madmen.
With silent persistence, this strange people fights against outside influence. Even Muslim missionaries, who easily converted many neighboring peoples to Islam several centuries ago, found themselves powerless in the face of the ancient Dogon religion.
The tribe still uses its own calendar with a five-day week. Market day is special - each village sets it up independently. Mostly women trade, but the holiday is universal - as a rule, according to its “results” the whole village turns out to be drunk as a whole.
The Dogon live in closed communities governed by a council of elders (ginna). Men dress in a loincloth and loose shirts, and women tie a skirt at the hips.
The relationship between the tribe and its neighbors is interesting. For example, they are connected with Bozo by the so-called comic kinship. This African tradition comes from ancient times. Its essence is that when representatives of two nations meet, they begin to jokingly conflict with each other, teasing and bombarding their opponent with barbs. It is assumed that in this way they are “letting off steam” and a serious conflict is simply impossible.
The burial cave is considered the most sacred place for the entire village. After the ritual dancing over the body of the deceased ends, it is placed on a wooden stretcher and carried throughout the village. Then the corpse is lifted onto the rocks using special ropes and placed in a pre-prepared cave.
The most important holiday for the tribe is the day... of the rebirth of the world. The ceremony is held once every half century! In this case, the main attribute is a special bench on one leg - siji. She also protects the tribe from evil spirits.
The Dogon live below the poverty line. Due to chronic poverty, they even began to plunder the tombs of the Thelemas, whom they had previously been terribly afraid of, and to sell the relics of the defeated people for next to nothing to the European collectors who poured into these lands.
In the village you can often meet a person shackled. These are not criminals, but... crazy people - shackles are put on them so that during the next attack the patients do not climb onto the rocks and rush down.
The eternal scourge of the tribe is drought and its constant companion is hunger. In 1973, the corpses of unfortunate recluses littered the roadsides. Fathers of families, out of shame for not being able to save their children, committed suicide, and mothers threw their children off a cliff so as not to see them die in agony.
In general, outwardly the Dogon lead the most ordinary, hopeless life of a primitive African tribe, deprived of almost all the benefits of civilization and barely surviving in a constant struggle with harsh nature. However, upon closer acquaintance with the tribe, inquisitive ethnographers discovered absolutely amazing things...
Having barely emerged from the Stone Age, the Dogon turned out to be knowledgeable in the movement of celestial bodies and astronomy. They talked not only about visible planets, but also about satellites that are not visible to the naked eye. Their legends about aliens from outer space amazed even the most notorious skeptics with amazing details...

The first and most surprising thing. Since ancient times, the Dogon knew what Sirius B looked like - the satellite star of Sirius, completely invisible from Earth.
Moreover, they said that the substance from which it consists is very heavy, much heavier than earth. According to the tribe, even several people cannot lift one grain from the surface of the star. And now attention - according to the latest scientific data, this is indeed true! The specific gravity of the substance of the companion star is 1.5 million tons per cubic inch!
Since ancient times, a wild tribe distinguished planets from stars. Moreover, it is different from the five planets of the solar system: Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and, presumably, Saturn. From the most ancient Dogon myths it is clearly stated that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Moon revolves around the Earth. Moreover, their knowledge about the satellite is extremely specific: she is “dry and dead.” The Dogons knew about the four moons of Jupiter and even about the ring surrounding Saturn!
But that's not all. In their old legends, the Dogon often mention the stars Porcyon, Gamma Canis minor and many others. They knew very well that the Milky Way is a “stellar spiral.”
In one of the caves of the tribe, researchers discovered drawings, the meaning of which became clear only when the orbits of Sirius and its companion star were calculated. It turned out that the rock art reflects the orbital movements of Sirius B from 1912 to 1990!!!
No less interesting was the ancient “graffiti” depicting a hitherto unknown aircraft landing on the ground and creatures emerging from it, partly resembling either snakes or fish...

It is surprising that some of these facts became known to humanity quite recently and only with the help of the most advanced means of science. But the wild Dogon knew about all this a long time ago. No one could provide a clear explanation of how the primitive tribe acquired all this knowledge...

HISTORICAL REFERENCE

The Dogon assure everyone that their ancestry should be traced back to the legendary rulers of Mali. The founder of this amazing West African empire was the great commander and statesman who lived in the first half of the 13th century, Sundiata Keita. Interestingly, as a child he was a weak child and barely survived. But when he grew up, he recovered from all his ailments and became a healthy man. The legends about him are full of fantastic details and are somewhat reminiscent of the legends about Ilya Muromets.
For example, it is described how he uprooted a baobab tree with his bare hands and carried it home on his shoulders. His strength was so great that no warrior except him could pull his bow (I immediately recall the Greek legends about Odysseus).
A special place in the epic is occupied by his struggle with Soumaoro Kante, the blacksmith ruler who seized Keita’s native lands. Like all blacksmiths, Sumaoro was endowed with magical properties - it was believed that he was a sorcerer and invulnerable to weapons. The sorcerer caught arrows on the fly, and spears broke on his chest. Soumaoro could take the form of 62 animals, and if he had to run, he simply disappeared into thin air.
But the future ruler of Mali resorted to a trick. He passed off his sister as an enemy, and she learned that there was still a remedy against the invincible sorcerer. You need to make an arrow with a tip from the spur of Soumaoro’s patron, the white rooster. So Sundiata regained the land of his ancestors.
The origin of feudal relations in Mali is also associated with Keita. It was he who was the first to transfer part of the lands for the use of his soldiers, thus creating a semblance of the European nobility.
The most famous ruler of Mali was Sundiata's nephew, Mansa Moussa I. Since ancient times, these lands have been rich in gold reserves. Sometimes it got to the point that in Mali salt turned out to be more expensive than the “despicable” metal.
Moussa decided to convert to Islam. Even the fact that he did not know Arabic and therefore could not read the Koran did not stop him.
As you know, the most important event in the life of every Muslim is the pilgrimage to Mecca - the Hajj. Moussa, being a true believer, also went to the holy city. But not alone. According to various sources, he was accompanied by a retinue of 60 to 80 thousand people (!!!), and the caravan carried 15 tons of gold as a gift to the rulers of the East.
This is how the King of Mali’s visit to Cairo is described: “This man poured out his generosity in a wave throughout Cairo. There was not a single courtier or other official in the entire Sultanate who did not receive a gift of gold from him. How nicely he behaved, what dignity, what modesty!”
So this modest guy wasted so much gold on the way that after his passage the price of the precious metal fell by half.
Musa also had other “quirks” - in every city that the ruler entered on Friday, he gave the order to build a mosque.
A similar trip to Mecca played a big role in the development of Mali. Merchants flocked to the country in droves. The first university on the African continent opened in Timbuktu (the capital of the empire). Scientists from all over the Arab world came here to indulge in scientific research in peace and luxury.
But the excessive wealth of the top and the extreme poverty of the bottom of the state destroyed the empire. Poverty reached the point that the unfortunate people voluntarily sold themselves into slavery in order to somehow survive. As a result, the withered country first fell apart into appanage principalities, and then received two crushing blows from its neighbors - from Songhai and from Morocco.

The Dogon are a small African people, traditionally engaged in agriculture and living on the lands of the Republic of Mali, in the remote mountainous area of ​​Bandiagara. According to Dogon legends, their ancestors came in the 10th-11th centuries from the upper reaches of the Niger River, from the country of Manden, in Sudan. They displaced the population that had previously lived in Bandiagara, adopting much of its culture and possibly adopting its language.

The Dogons were isolated from the whole world for a long time and therefore retained an archaic way of life, almost the same as their ancestors led in the Stone Age. Despite the adoption of Islam by a significant part of the Dogon since the mid-19th century, and over time the adoption by a smaller part of the people of Christianity, the Dogon have retained ancient beliefs, including primitive knowledge of nature combined with mysterious astronomical information that has amazed modern scientists. The cosmogonic ideas of this people surprisingly resonate with the data of science of our time.

Among European scientists, the French ethnographer Marcel Griaule showed interest in the life of the Dogon in the 1930s. He lived among them for several years, learned their language and customs. He was even lucky enough to participate in the holiday celebrated by the Dogon once every 50 years. For this holiday, the Dogon make special masks that are carefully preserved by subsequent generations.

When Griaule returned to this tribe in 1946, the council of elders and priests decided to introduce him to the circle of initiates and reveal to the scientist the secret knowledge of the people - the legend of the creation of the world.

It must be said that these people did not have their own written language, and all important knowledge was passed on by word of mouth for generations. The narration was accompanied by graphic drawings.

The mystery of the Dogon was first discussed in their research by Marcel Griaule and Germaine Diterlen, French anthropologists who studied the Dogon from 1931 to 1952, in their article “The Sudanese Sirius System,” published in 1950 in the Journal de la Société des Africanistes. It was there that information first appeared about the triple nature of Sirius in the Dogon cosmogony and the invisible stars known to them. The article only stated facts; the researchers made no attempts to somehow explain the information received. Later, another book by scientists, “The Pale Fox,” was published.

An attempt to comprehend the Dogon myths was made by Eric Guerrier in the book “Essay on the Dogon Cosmogony: The Ark of Nommo” published in 1975 and by Robert Temple in the book “The Mystery of Sirius” published in 1976. The latter tried to prove that the Dogon learned their secrets from amphibious aliens from the Sirius system, and perhaps not directly, but through Ancient Egypt. Eric Guerrier, an architect and amateur astronomer, drew attention to the fact that the Dogon cosmogonic system and their astronomical views coincided with modern scientific data and hypotheses. A fact that escaped ethnologists who were not fully knowledgeable in matters of astronomy.

The scientist’s attention was also attracted by the Dogon’s excellent knowledge of the starry sky.
The North Star and the Southern Cross are called the “Eyes of the World” by the Dogon. Alpha of the Southern Cross - "Double Eye of the World." The star is indeed double, but astronomers were convinced of this only with the help of telescopes, while the Dogon, we recall, did not have any astronomical instruments at hand.

They divide celestial bodies into stars, planets and satellites. The Dogon are well aware of the structure of the solar system. They know that the Sun rotates around its axis, and the Earth revolves around the Sun. According to the Dogon, Venus has a satellite. Actually this is not true. But in 1976, astronomers Van Flandern and Harrington put forward a hypothesis according to which Mercury was a former satellite of Venus. According to the calculations of these scientists, anomalies in the orbit of Mercury and some features of its structure indicate that approximately 400 thousand years ago it switched to an independent orbit. This hypothesis is based on precise astronomical observations and complex calculations. However, it remains a mystery how the Dogon know about this.

The Dogon know about the four moons of Jupiter and the ring around Saturn. They place planets in elliptical orbits.

But the Dogon recognize the main role among the celestial bodies as Sirius. This is clear from the name of this planet, which they call the “navel of the world.” According to their myths, Sirius is a triple star system. Modern astronomy, however, defines Sirius as a binary system. It is small in size, comparable to the Earth, but very hot star with a mass that is close to the mass of the Sun, the so-called “white dwarf”. The second star makes one revolution around Sirius A in 50.4 ± 0.09 Earth years. It is with this frequency that the Dogon hold their festival of masks. They, like astronomical science today, know that around Sirius-A, which the Dogon call the star Shigu, a small but very massive satellite rotates in an elongated orbit - the “star Po”, which modern scientists call Sirius-B. The brightness of Sirius-B is 10 thousand times less than the brightness of the main star, and it can only be seen with a strong telescope. This star cannot be seen with the naked eye, and where the Dogon got such information is a matter of speculation. More mysterious is the information of this people about another satellite of Jupiter - the star Emma Ya, and in the language of science - Sirius-C, which has not yet been discovered by modern science. According to the Dogon information, this satellite has a more elongated orbit than Sirius-B, but their orbital period is the same - 50 years. In addition, according to the Dogon, as Sirius-B approaches Sirius-A, the brightness of the latter’s glow increases, which has also been confirmed by modern astronomers. This happens once every 50 years.

The Dogon believe that this Sirius-B is the heaviest star, and so heavy that all people taken together could not lift even a small piece of it. So, according to modern astronomy, the white dwarf Sirius-B consists of matter of fantastic density; one cubic centimeter of it would weigh about a ton on Earth.

The Dogon identify Sirius-B with the “grain “po”” - the “empty shell” that was formed after the “spread of things throughout the Universe.” This is the main object of the universe, giving birth to the “spiral worlds” of the Universe - galaxies.
According to modern astronomers, white dwarfs appear as a result of powerful supernova explosions of stars that were previously red giants.

One of the Dogon myths tells about just such an event - the outbreak and gradual extinction of a star in the Sirius system. It should be noted that nothing like this was noted in any other written sources of ancient civilizations.

Focusing on the 50-year cycle, the Dogon celebrate the Sigi holidays associated with the star Sirius A - Siri Tolo. But this date is celebrated not at half-century intervals, but every 60 years, and the holiday lasts for 7 years.

This is a holiday of world renewal. During Shiga, a huge “kanaga”, a wooden bird mask, is made. The masks are not destroyed at the end of the holiday, but are stored in a special place. This enabled scientists, in particular Griaule, to count the number of masks and determine that the celebrations of Sigi began around 1300 AD.

The Dogon have a cult of honoring the “Twilight Zone”, and they bury their dead in caves. Dogon cosmogony is reminiscent of both the idea of ​​biblical creationism and the scientific theory of the “big bang”. One of their myths says: “In the beginning of all things there was only Amma - the god who did not lie on anything. Amma’s ball-egg was closed... there was nothing besides it.” Then, from this ball-egg, the world emerged in all its diversity. “The world in the bosom of Amma was still without time and without space. Time and space have become one." “When Amma broke the egg of the world and came out of it, a whirlwind arose and spun. This whirlwind that is spinning is Amma.” "Amma created an infinite number of worlds."
In general, the modern scientific theory of the “big bang” also describes the emergence of the world from a small compressed clot of matter with a volume of 10 cubic centimeters. About 20 billion years ago, the “big bang” occurred, as a result of which our Universe began to expand. As it expanded, time and distance appeared. The universe continues to expand in our time.

According to the Dogon, our Earth is not the only inhabited place. “Spiral-shaped star worlds are inhabited worlds. Along with things, Amma, who gave the world movement and form, created all kinds of living beings.”

Dogon mythology also knows about the smallest particles that make up everything around. “All things that Amma created have their beginning in the smallest grain. Starting from this small thing, all the things that Amma created were formed by successively adding the same elements. Amma creates all things small, like a grain “po”, then adds these grains to the already created things. As Amma connects them, the body grows larger.”

Dogon mythology also speaks of the appearance of the first people on Earth. The first alien on Earth was Ogo, one of the assistants of the supreme god Amma, who rebelled against his patron. He is one of the four sons of the first being created by the supreme god Amma - Nommo anagonno. This Ogo is a rather mischievous character. Amma tried three times to prevent Ogo from coming to Earth. But Ogo made himself a ship that moved with the help of the wind. He arrived from the star Sigi Tolo (Sirius). After him, other settlers arrived on Earth, and Ogo began to harm them. The supreme god Amma turned him into the “pale fox Yurugu.”

The next guest, who arrived already on Amma's orders, was Nommo. His mission was to populate the Earth. He arrived with people on a ship consisting of 60 compartments. People only know what was contained in the 22 compartments of the Nommo ship. What was in the remaining compartments will become known later. This knowledge, according to the Dogon, will change people's ideas about the world.

Nommo's ship flew towards Earth through the hole in the sky that Amma had made, and swung in the sky for eight periods, "occupying the sky from horizon to horizon, like a great rainbow." It swayed from East to West, leaning now in the northern direction, now in the south. The ship hung from the sky on a copper chain, which Nommo then returned back to the sky. Lake Debbie appeared at the site where Nommo's ship landed. Along with Nommo, eight human ancestors arrived on the ship. After the landing of people and other creatures, Nommo dived into the water, from there he monitors what is happening and takes care of the people. He will appear on earth again on the “day of the word.”

In the region where the Dogon live, there is Lake Debbie and Mount Scholl, on which there is a large dolmen - a structure made of large stones. According to Dogon legend, it symbolizes the ship Nommo, which once arrived on Earth. Nearby rise three more stone structures - menhirs, symbolizing Sirius, the Sun and the Earth. Lake Debbie and these stone structures mark the landing site of space travelers.

Some scientists, in particular Guerrier, believe that the Dogon myths preserve information about their contacts with aliens that took place in ancient times. Other researchers, such as American astronomer Carl Sagan, are opponents of such views.

Then how could an African tribe have such extensive knowledge of astronomy? Perhaps the Dogon or their distant ancestors lived on the planet Sirius?
There is also a skeptical point of view on the knowledge of the Dogon. Some scientists note that the research of Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen is the only source that tells about the mysterious knowledge of the Dogon priests in the field of astronomy.

In addition, over time, it became clear that in all of Griaule’s notes on Dogon cosmogony there is not a single astronomical fact that was unknown at the time the scientist conducted his research. The modern Belgian anthropologist Walter van Beek spent 12 years among the Dogon, but stated that he had not heard from them anything similar to Griaule’s messages.

This scientist noticed that all the information was received by Griaule from only one informant named Ambara, and this fact also does not give the data received credibility. True, it is also possible that the Dogon knowledge about the mysteries of space was known only to a narrow circle of initiates, whom Griol mentions under the word “olubaru,” and Griol’s informant Ambara was precisely one of them.

Finally, a researcher on this topic, Carl Sagan, suggested that some astronomical knowledge could have been borrowed from Europeans who visited the Dogon before Griaule and Dieterlen began their research.
An opinion was also expressed about the Dogon’s independent observations of the stars: according to this version, in contemplating the starry sky they did not use any magnifying devices and made their discoveries only thanks to the visual acuity of individual people. This assumption was made in the 1980s by Soviet authors A. Arefiev and L. Fomin. However, in order to observe, for example, a star such as Sirius-B, you need to have visual acuity more than twice that available to a person, and in order to perceive this star as a separate luminary from the neighboring Sirius-A, you need to have vision four times more powerful than in a person with normal vision. The first observation of Sirius B was made using a telescope only in 1862.

Skeptics also point out that the Dogon know nothing about planets such as Mercury, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

Be that as it may, the question of where the aboriginal tribe from Central Africa got such deep knowledge about the celestial bodies, inexplicable even by modern science, remains unanswerable.

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How did the African Dogon tribe acquire knowledge that still amazes astronomers?

There are a lot of peoples and tribes living on our planet, some of which are at a very low level of development, which does not prevent them from being very mysterious. For example, the Dogon tribe.

The tribe is very small - about two hundred to three hundred thousand people. The Dogon live - by the way, very isolated - in West Africa on the territory of the state of Mali on the Bandiagara plateau. They came here between the 10th and 13th centuries and brought with them their main altar, Lebe, and strange, archaic customs and beliefs. They live in a closed community, in adobe huts, fields are sown with simple millet, the dead are buried in caves, ritual dances are performed on stilts... In general, the most primitive culture. The fact that ethnographers are showing interest in them is quite justified. But it is not only ethnographers who are showing interest. The Dogons are of great interest to... astronomers. Why did such a small and almost primitive tribe attract the attention of these scientists?

Since 1931, a group of French ethnographers led by Marcel Griol and Germaine Dieterlen studied the life, customs and beliefs of this people, recorded legends... Dogon myths are not for prying ears, they can only be told by members of the Ava Olubaru (mask society) who know a certain mysterious language — whitefish co. For some reason, apparently, the aborigines liked Griol, and by decision of the council of elders he was allowed to be ordained as a priest. And the priest, of course, has secret knowledge revealed to him.

In 1950, after almost twenty years of work, Griaule published a series of sensational articles in African studies journals. The articles directly related to astronomy. But they did not become a sensation: which astronomer is interested in ethnography? What astronomer, in order to learn something new for himself, would read an ethnographer? Ethnography and astronomy are an unthinkable combination. But one day, quite by accident, Griaule’s articles fell into the hands of the English astronomer McGree...

There are a few things that need to be listed here. The second star of the Sirius system, Sirius B, was discovered in 1862, and its unusually high density was determined even later, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. This density allowed the star to be classified as a “white dwarf”. Spiral nebulae - there is such a term in astronomy - were sketched by Ross in the mid-19th century. In 1924, astronomer Hubble proved that they are made of stars. The rotation of our Galaxy was proven in 1927, and its spiral shape was proven in 1950. All these are discoveries of paramount importance, which became possible only by bringing astronomical equipment to a certain perfection. Previously, these discoveries - with antediluvian telescopes and telescopes - were impossible to make.

What has led us to the enumeration of these discoveries and what does this have to do with the subject of our story? It turns out that the primitive Dogon knew about all this, all this was talked about long ago in their archaic mythology! Mythologies of a people whose entire science is limited to the manufacture of ritual masks.

And now about the rare and solemn rituals in which these same masks participate (although we are not talking about them at all). Dogon rituals are tied to the fifty-year period of Sirius B's orbit around Sirius. It is impossible to detect this tiny satellite of Sirius (or Sirius A), determine its color, calculate its orbital period and density without having astronomical instruments. From Earth, Sirius B is visible at an angle of 7.6 seconds, plus it is located visually very close to the main component of the system - Sirius A, and since Sirius A is the brightest star in the sky, then against its background the glow of Sirius B is ten thousand times greater weaker; its relative magnitude is 8.5.

It is believed that the resolution of the human eye is on average equal to one arc minute. The theoretical limit above which the eye by nature cannot distinguish anything is twelve arc seconds, but there are very few people on Earth with such visual acuity. But even twelve arc seconds is not enough to distinguish Sirius B. It is not for nothing that the satellite of Sirius was first discovered mathematically - based on deviations in the movement of Sirius A, and only then discovered visually. In addition, even having seen this tiny star through a telescope near Sirius, one still had to guess what it was. And in order to calculate all the properties of a star, a developed mathematical apparatus is needed, which, as far as is now known, no civilization had in those distant times, from where the Dogon knowledge comes.

What do the Dogon themselves say about the Sirius system? According to Dogon knowledge, this system is very complex. Its main component is called Sigi tolo ("tolo" means "star" in the Dogon language), and its satellites are called Po tolo and Emme ya tolo. The Po star, the Dogon say, is white, like po grain (a type of millet). In Dogon sanctuaries this star is symbolized by a pure white stone. According to the Dogon views, all things in the world consist of four basic elements - earth, water, air and fire. In the Potolo satellite, the element “earth” is replaced by “metal” in all its forms, and especially in the form of “sagal”. This is a metal, the Dogon say, “more shiny than iron, and so heavy that even if all the people were gathered together, they would not be able to lift even a small piece of it.” Therefore, Poe's star is "the smallest and heaviest of all stars."

We can conclude that Sirius A (among Europeans) and Sigi tolo (among the Dogon) are one and the same. Sirius B and Potolo are also one and the same. What is Emme ya tolo? What is the situation with the second satellite of Sirius? But that’s not the case! This is unknown to modern astronomy. But its existence is assumed! Astronomers have long been saying that there must be a second satellite - again due to deviations in the movement of Sirius A. But they cannot find it yet - neither mathematically nor practically. Do the Dogons, then, know about its existence?

The Dogon idea is also interesting that Po Tolo and Emme ya Tolo make one revolution around Sigi Tolo in approximately the same time - fifty years, although the trajectory of Emme ya Tolo is longer. From the standpoint of modern celestial mechanics, such an orbit of a celestial body is extremely unlikely, if possible at all. Emme ya tolo, the Dogon say, is larger than Po tolo, but four times lighter. It is also called “the little sun of women” - Yau naidagi. And this “sun,” in turn, is not lonely either! Two planets revolve around it - Ara tolo and Yu tolo. It must be said that the Dogon are excellent at distinguishing between stars (tolo), planets (tolo tanaze, which literally means “moving stars”) and satellites (tolo gonoze - “circling stars”). So much for primitive culture with millet and masks!

At the same time - what is surprising! — The Dogon do not represent the solar system at all as well as the Sirius system. There are only five planets in it: Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and, apparently, Saturn. The Dogon know that the Earth rotates around its axis and, moreover, revolves around the Sun. They know that the Moon—Iye Pilu—“dry and dead”—orbits the Earth. Jupiter - Dana tolo - has four satellites, and Saturn - Yalu ulo tolo - “permanent halo” - has rings. (As we, modern people, know, the satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, and even them themselves, cannot be seen with the naked eye.) These planets, along with Venus (Tolo Yazu) and Mars (Yapunu tolo), also revolve around the Sun.

But the Dogon do not know that there are outer planets and Mercury. Unless, of course, we identify Mercury with Yazu Danala tolo - “the star that accompanies Venus.”

But the Dogon know that the stars visible in the sky are distant from the Earth, only the Sun star is close to it. But the main star is not she, the main one is Sirius, which is also called the “navel of the world,” although Sirius occupies the main place in a group of stars that includes only the constellation Orion and several nearby (visually in the sky) stars. The latter include: the Pleiades, Enegerin Tolo - “Star of the Goat Shepherd” (gamma Canis Minor), Tara tolo - Procyon, etc. Their totality constitutes the “internal” system of stars or the “support of the foundation of the world.” At the same time, the Dogon believe that this system is directly involved in life on Earth. The external system, the Dogon claim, consists of other, more distant luminaries, which interfere to a lesser extent in human life.

The outer system - the "spiral star world" - is none other than the Milky Way, Yalu Ulo. It rotates around an axis passing through the North Star and the constellation of the Southern Cross. It is curious that the Polar-Southern Cross axis lies almost in the same plane with the Galactic axis and is almost (divergence - 5-7 degrees) perpendicular to it.

There are infinitely many such “spiral star worlds” (galaxies, to use European language) in the Universe, and the Universe itself is “infinite, but measurable.” It is inhabited by living beings. On “other lands,” according to the Dogon, live “winged, horned, tailed, crawling people.”

How did the Dogon know all this and how do they at least explain it themselves? And how do they explain the appearance of man on Earth?

According to Dogon legends, the creator god Amma gave birth to two twins - Nommo and Yurugu - half-human, half-snake, and they gave rise to the human race. One of them was a blacksmith. The ancestors of the Dogon, according to legend, could turn into snakes and possessed immortality, but after the Fall, their souls could not find peace for a long time. The oracle, who carved a large snake from a tree, gave them a place of refuge and rest.

The Dogon tell scientists about the process of creating the Universe this way: “At the beginning of all things there was Amma - God, who did not rest on anything. Amma was a ball, an egg, and the egg was closed. Apart from him, nothing existed... The world inside Amma was still without time and without space. Time and space merged into one. But the moment came when Amma opened his eyes. At the same time, his thought came out of the spiral, which, circling in his womb, indicated the future growth of the world ... "

It is very similar to the theory of the Big Bang, as a result of which, according to the theory of cosmology, the Universe was formed. Before the explosion, all matter was compressed to an incredible density and occupied a negligibly small volume. Neither space nor time as such existed. After the Big Bang, the process of continuous expansion of the Universe began, which continues to this day. The latest data obtained using the most powerful radio telescopes only confirm this hypothesis.

As for the appearance of people, the Dogon talk about it like this. One of the twins - Yurugu, the "Pale Fox", symbolizes drought, disorder and is the opposite of moisture, light, order in the person of his brother Nommo. Among the Dogon drawings there is an image called “The Fox Descends in an Ark from the Po Star.” In another picture - the Sun and Sirius (with the diameter of Sirius exceeding the diameter of the Sun), connected by a curve twisting around each of the luminaries, like a space flight route.

Not only Yurugu descended to Earth in an ark; a little later, another ark carried Nommo to our planet. The ancestors of people came to Earth with him.

This ark landed after eight years of “swinging” in the sky. The descent of the ark is symbolically depicted on the facade of the Dogon sanctuary. The stars are also depicted there: Po tolo and Emma Ya tolo, as well as “the theoretical celestial place where Nommo di is located.” This place is identified with Enegerin tolo (Gamma Canis Minor). When the ark landed, the earth around was raging, lightning was striking, and an unimaginable hurricane began. After the device touched the earth’s surface, everything became quiet and a ladder with ten steps appeared from it, a door opened, from where the gods appeared...

In all other respects, Dogon mythology is very archaic. They believe, for example, that the Universe arose from drops of the victim's blood (in parallel with the version that there was Amma's egg); They believe that the rotation of Po tolo around Sigi tolo symbolizes the rite of circumcision, and the circular movements of celestial bodies are similar to the circulation of blood.

Orthodox scholars, of course, deny the Dogon myths and claim that the Dogon heard about Sirius B in local French missionary schools even before Griaule began recording their beliefs in 1931, and simply incorporated this information into their “ancient” rituals. Good version. Ancient images of the Dogon fit especially well into it. But let’s say there are no images, let’s believe that the missionaries just did a good job. The Dogon missionaries were very educated! With a simply fantastic set of astronomical knowledge. And, apparently, they had no other topics to discuss than discussing the latest developments in modern astronomy with the wild natives. And in general, those priests were extremely advanced - they believed that the Earth was not flat, but round, and that it even flies in space. This is how a kind of Galileo appears among the Jesuit fathers, who undertook to educate the primitive African community in astronomy. Especially considering the basic cosmological postulates of the Bible, which still deny the structure of the Universe and the Solar system. And the Dogon shamans immediately ran to rewrite their myths and redraw rock carvings. Yes, they would rather believe in the existence of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto!

But, as they say, they laughed and that’s enough. Seriously though, where did the Dogon actually get their fantastic knowledge?

Most scientists who do not profess the theory of aliens are inclined to believe that the Dogon simply borrowed them from another culture. Which? Maybe the ancient Egyptians? Moreover, the tribe moved to West Africa only about eight centuries ago. (By the way, where did they live before?) The version, in principle, is not bad, but where did the Egyptians, in turn, borrow their knowledge? They didn't have telescopes either. But the Egyptians were still incomparably more civilized, so let’s say it. The explanation could pass if not for one “but”: among the Dogon, their myths mention an explosion on Sirius B, which took place in the 2nd century AD; moreover, this explosion is one of the central points of mythology. The ancient Egyptians could not have known anything about the explosion of Sirius B - their civilization perished much earlier than the 2nd century. The idea of ​​the existence of super-dense matter, “white dwarfs” in the Universe, generally refers to the most modern knowledge, and the ancient Egyptians were certainly not aware of such complex cosmic phenomena.

Perhaps Dogon knowledge originates from medieval Arab culture? The Canadian Ovenden hypothesized contact with a Muslim university in Timbuktu, where the knowledge of the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks was stored. But this is also a false trail - ancient scientists did not have such deep knowledge of astronomy. And the images of the Dogon are much older.

A very funny version is that all the knowledge of the Dogon is nothing more than a practical joke on the part of Marcel Griaule. But, firstly, this scientist has an impeccable reputation. Secondly, he was guided by the principle of “describe and only describe.” Thirdly, did he also persuade the Dogons to later claim to everyone that they possess precisely this knowledge? Fourthly, where did Griaule himself possess such knowledge of astronomy? The version is funny, but untenable: for any joker it makes sense to joke if only the result will be immediate. And astronomers paid attention to Griaule’s work only many years later. This would be unbearable for any joker.

There remains one more option. Not even an option, but a direct explanation arising from Dogon mythology. As their legends say, people received all their knowledge from God, who descended from the third (!) star of the Sirius system. He appeared in an ark, this ark was spinning. And the rotation was maintained by “breathing” through the nozzle. Upon landing, the ark raised a cloud of dust. (Remember the drawing connecting the Sirius system and our Sun in one direct line.) But let us recall that the existence of a third star in the Sirius system is still only an assumption, although many scientists are persistently looking for evidence for it. For example, the famous American physicist Carl Sagan. By the way, he said that evidence of a visit to our planet by aliens from outer space can be either indisputable “artifacts” or the existence in myths of “clear messages about astronomical realities that primitive people could not know about themselves.”

The hypothesis that the archaic but astronomically advanced Dogon mythology is evidence of a paleo-visit by aliens was formulated by the American scientist Robert Temple in 1975. In 1978, Robert Temple published The Sirius Mystery. Since then, controversy has continued around this hypothesis. Immediately there were a bunch of people who seized on this “tasty” version and came up with a bunch of their own, and about completely different peoples. But of all the plots related to aliens, whose unprofessionalism is visible a mile away, it is impossible to brush aside the Dogon mythology. This is what is called an objective fact of objective knowledge.

This version - about alien gods - explains the deepest secret knowledge not only of the Dogon, but also of many other peoples. A newspaper page is not enough to list everything. Let us only recall the Anunnaki, the gods of the ancient Sumerians, who descended to Earth. Perhaps aliens from Sirius or one of its satellites actually visited our planet in prehistoric times and, seeing signs of intelligent life here, decided to transfer part of their knowledge to the emerging civilization.

According to another, no less widespread version, it’s all about the disappeared mighty civilization of the Earth, which died as a result of a monstrous natural disaster (another option is a man-made disaster). The legend of Atlantis is a clear confirmation of this.

So we can’t count on an imminent end to the dispute. The “White Dwarf”, spiral star systems and the Milky Way, the rotation of Sirius B around its axis - all this cannot now be seen even with the most powerful telescope, they are the result of understanding what astronomers observe, and imply a high level of culture.

So it turns out that there is no escape from the paleovisit hypothesis. But how reluctant is orthodox science to believe in aliens! Well, they don’t fit into their lives! Moreover, the aliens turn out to be some kind of half-educated people! The Dogon were told about everything, all the secrets of Sirius were revealed, and the planets of the native Dogon solar system were counted with errors. They probably only knew how to count to five—on their fingers. And the aliens who made their way through the entire Universe could not consider Sirius B to be the smallest and heaviest star, because they would certainly have known (as we know today) about the existence of much smaller and heavier stars.

And another version was born: there were other missionaries, some other well-wishers. For example, the Catholic “White Brothers” who allegedly visited the Dogon in the 20s of the last century. Seeing that Aboriginal mythology attaches great importance to Sirius (why would this be, by the way?), in order to establish contacts with the tribe, the missionary decided to enrich the Dogon’s ideas about their divine luminary. In the West, just in the 20s, Sirius became the topic of numerous publications. And the density of the satellite was already known... “The smallest and heaviest star” - this characteristic of Sirius B corresponds to the level of astronomical knowledge of the 20s. But even Catholics already knew, if not sixteen satellites of Jupiter (as we know today), then at least nine - this is exactly the number of satellites that were known in the 20s. Why did they only talk about four?

So it doesn’t work out with this version of missionary-educators either. But another one has appeared: Dogon knowledge has been collected from the world, piece by piece. Everyone who came to the tribe in one way or another was eagerly tortured by the elders and priests about all the new developments in astronomy. Such a painful craving for the starry sky in general and Sirius in particular. An entire people possessed by a single mania.

Yes, it is not difficult to notice that Dogon astronomy is characterized by a distinct chronological multi-layered nature. The first layer: ideas characteristic of archaic culture, when a person knows only about planets visible to the naked eye: neither missionaries nor aliens are needed here. Hence there are only five planets in the solar system. (Really, how can you calculate the orbits of bright “stars” - Venus, Mars, if you consider them stars? Not much shines in the sky? Why should it revolve around the Earth? And why does it itself rotate, and even move in space? This too visible to the naked eye of a primitive man?) The second layer - knowledge, for example, about the satellites of Jupiter - corresponds to the astronomical concepts of the era of Galileo. (I wonder who from Galileo’s entourage reached Africa to enlighten the knowledge-hungry Dogon?) Finally, knowledge about the Sirius system or the spiral structure of the Galaxy corresponds to the level of science of the first half of the 20th century. The version, in principle, has the right to exist. If it were not for what is in parentheses and, again, more than one “but”: the Dogon mythology looks very integral, ethnographers do not see “white threads” in the Dogon legends and a hasty adjustment of new borrowings to old myths. Each astronomical fact among the Dogon is tied to certain rituals, which can be traced through relics and artifacts until at least the 12th century!

German scientist Dieter Hermann calls the situation with Dogon knowledge about space a “hopeless case”: it is impossible to unequivocally refute or confirm any version, but for a respectable scientist it is still more decent to stick to the version about missionaries. Although the version, as we have seen, is funny, stupid and extremely far-fetched. New astronomical discoveries could resolve the dispute. If only a third star had been discovered near Sirius!..

P.S. From reports from one of the news sites: “In Central Africa, anthropologists have discovered a cemetery of creatures, aliens, similar in appearance to humans and buried about five hundred years ago. About two hundred well-preserved bodies were discovered in the graves. An examination of the bodies showed that these were most likely representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization, because They had no signs of ancient people. Each “mass grave” contained five bodies. The height of each of them was about 2 m 13 cm. The heads have a disproportionate structure, there is no mouth, nose and eyes. Perhaps they communicated telepathically and moved through space using biological radar, like the radar of bats. “Scientists are trying to figure out where they came from on Earth and why they died here,” said Swiss anthropologist Dr. Hugo Deti. This is not the first time that strange creatures and their remains have been discovered, whose belonging to the human race is very doubtful. Hypotheses generally agree that these are either ancient genetic freaks or aliens.

The entire celestial sphere is divided into areas called constellations. Each of them includes tens and hundreds of stars. Our distant ancestors, for greater clarity, depicted the constellations in the form of various figures. They outlined star clusters with imaginary lines and obtained original drawings. This is how the constellation of the Crane, Dove, Hare, Peacock, Golden Fish and many, many others appeared. For example, in the starry sky of the Southern Hemisphere there are 41 constellations, and in the Northern Hemisphere 47. Thus, today there are 88 constellations.

Constellation Canis Major in the form of a drawing of a dog and lines on the night sky

We will be interested in the constellation Canis Major, located on the celestial sphere of the Southern Hemisphere. It includes 148 stars. There are 80 of the brightest of them. But the brightest star of this constellation is called Sirius. It emits a bluish-white glow and is perfectly visible in the night sky. It should be noted right away that the bluish-white beauty leads in its brightness not only among its brothers in the constellation. It is brighter than all the stars in the night sky, and people have known about it for thousands of years.

Not only residents of the Southern Hemisphere can admire Sirius. Northerners are also lucky. Even residents of Norilsk, Vorkuta and Murmansk are not deprived of this pleasure. The good visibility of this celestial body is explained by the fact that it is closer than other stars to our solar system, with the exception of the Alpha Centauri star system (4.36 light years), Barnard's star (5.97 light years), and the Wolf 359 star (7. 82 light years) and the stars Lalande 21185 (8.29 light years).

The distance between our native Sun and Sirius is only 8.64 light years. For the vast expanses of the Milky Way, this is nothing. In its brightness, Sirius is second only to the Sun, Moon, beautiful Venus, mysterious Mars and gas giant Jupiter. But among the distant stars of the Universe he is the first. Other shining formations are clearly paler, but they are located further from the old Earth.

Sirius is the brightest star in Earth's night sky

Until the mid-19th century, the bluish-white star was considered a lonely beauty in the endless black cosmic abyss. But in 1844, the German mathematician and astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846) hypothesized that next to Sirius there was some large dark body invisible to the human eye. The professor's conclusions were not based on nothing. The star, moving, constantly deviated first to the left, then to the right from its linear motion.

Friedrich Bessel argued that the star and the mysterious dark body have a common center of rotation, and the period of one revolution around it is 50 years. Venerable astronomers perceived this statement with skepticism. The German professor could not prove it in any practical way. He died in 1846, and in 1862, the American astronomer and telescope designer Alvan Graham Clark (1832-1897), while checking the operation of a new 18-inch optical telescope, discovered a small star near Sirius.

They began to observe her and discovered that she was moving in a certain orbit, completely consistent with the calculations of Friedrich Bessel. Thus, the theoretical calculations of the German professor found practical confirmation, which once again confirmed the genius of the self-taught mathematician.

In subsequent years, astronomers unraveled the mystery of the mysterious object. It turned out to be a star that received the status of a white dwarf. There are no thermonuclear reactions in the depths of this space object. Moreover, the mass of such a cosmic formation is equal to the mass of the Sun, but the diameter is many times smaller. Accordingly, the white dwarf has an enormous density, which is millions of times greater than the density of any star, in the depths of which irreversible thermonuclear processes are constantly taking place.

In the end, Sirius revealed his secrets to people. The large bluish-white star was named Sirius-A. The white dwarf was named Sirius-B. The latter is the very first white dwarf with the highest mass discovered. The age of the stars is about 200-300 million years. By cosmic standards, this is youth. At the very beginning of his life, Sirius consisted of two bright suns. The mass of one was equal to 5 masses of our Sun, and the mass of the second was only 2 masses of our native star.

The more massive star burned out and became a white dwarf. Its volume decreased to the size of the Earth, and its mass became equal to the mass of the Sun. Another formation, that is, Sirius-A, today exceeds the Sun in mass twice, that is, it has remained unchanged in its size. People have been observing its radiance for thousands of years in the firmament. This is where the fun begins.

The noble Roman citizen and philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65) called Sirius not a bluish-white, but a bright red star. One could argue that the venerable meter was mistaken, but the fact is that Claudius Ptolemy (87-165) also saw a radiance of a similar color. The latter was an astronomer and astrologer. He regularly admired the night sky, but for some reason he did not see any bluish-white lights.

Did this respected gentleman really suffer from some kind of hidden visual defect? But what then to do with the Chinese astronomer Sima Qian (145-90 BC). This resident of the eastern tip of Eurasia also mentions the red color of a distant star. He is echoed by representatives of many other peoples who lived around the same time. One cannot help but conclude that 2000 years ago Sirius-A emitted a red glow, and then, for unknown reasons, changed its color to bluish-white.

Official science categorically rejects this state of affairs. An age of 2000 years for the Universe is the same as a second in a human life. In such an insignificant period of time, no fundamental changes can simply occur to the star.

Scientific minds of our time make the assumption that the word “red” is only a metaphor. Poetically minded personalities of antiquity simply tried to emphasize the beauty of the star, so they endowed it with bright epithets that had nothing to do with reality. It is also necessary to take into account that during sunrise and sunset the star flickers, creating a pale red glow around itself.

There is, however, another opinion that has nothing to do with official science. It offers the public a slightly different interpretation of events and points to little-studied aspects of life that lie beyond rational thinking.

Dogon

In West Africa, in the southeast of the state of Mali, there live a people who call themselves Dogon. These people live in remote areas of the Bandiagara sandstone plateau. The steep cliffs of this natural formation reach a height of up to 500 meters, and the length of the plateau reaches 150 km. This area has a unique landscape. It includes people's houses, sanctuaries for religious rites, grain storage facilities, cleared areas for public gatherings and is a unique architectural complex considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Dogon appeared in the lands of West Africa approximately in the 10th century. Legends say that they came from somewhere from the upper reaches of the Niger, that is, from the western coast of the hottest continent on the planet. But where exactly they lived for many millennia, where the roots of this people “grow” - nothing is known. One gets the impression that the tribe arose out of nowhere and settled on the Bandiagara plateau, significantly displacing the local peoples.

The Dogon never had a high culture. Given their isolation, there have been no fundamental changes in the 21st century. They are a semi-wild tribe who rely on raising cattle and farming for their livelihood. There is practically no production; only blacksmithing and pottery are developed. People live in adobe houses, which can rather be called huts. However, adobe buildings have always been distinguished by their high strength, durability and low cost, and their environmental friendliness even today does not raise any doubts. The population reaches 200 thousand people.

The tribe is divided into communities, and these, in turn, are divided into families. Every community has a priest. This is the spiritual mentor of his flock. He is also the keeper of ancient knowledge left to him by his ancestors. Knowledge is expressed in myths and legends and carries very interesting information. It is thanks to her that the Dogon are widely known not only to ethnographers, but also to astronomers.

This people, hidden from the whole world in hard-to-reach places, has its main god Ammu, as well as the folk hero Nommo. Deities emerging from water occupy a significant place in mythology. These are half-people, half-snakes, possessing enormous mystical power. There is also the evil creature Yurugu, who brings destruction and death. In general, nothing special. Every nation has something similar in its myths and legends. But this is only at first glance.

What is the difference, and who noticed it first? Here it is necessary to mention the name of the French ethnographer Marcel Griaule (1898-1956). This is a professor at the University of Paris who organized as many as 5 expeditions to Africa. That is, a person who deeply possesses certain knowledge concerning the archaic elements of the culture of the ancient peoples of the hot continent.

It must be said right away that Marcel Griaule’s expeditions were by no means short-term trips to backward African tribes. The scientist lived among these people for years, carefully studying their myths, traditions and customs. This is a serious researcher, and you can trust him unconditionally.

In the 30s of the last century, a Frenchman lived for several years among the Dogon. He carefully studied the life of these people and recorded their legends from ancient times. Returning to Europe, the scientist processed the material and published several serious articles on ethnography. They did not arouse any interest among the general public. These were highly specialized works, interesting only to people of science.

How it happened is unknown, but the works of Marcel Griaule caught the eye of the English astronomer and mathematician William Hunter McCrea (1904-1999). Having carefully read the ethnographer’s articles, the Briton was shocked to the core. What he read in the Frenchman’s works went beyond the usual understanding of the world around him and directly related to the distant star Sirius.

Dogon and Sirius

The most important place in Dogon mythology was occupied by the star Sirius. In the minds of these people, it was considered triple and consisted of a main star and two minor stars. The main one or Sirius-A was called Sigi tolo by the Dogon. The secondary ones were called: Po tolo and Emmeya tolo. There was no doubt that Potolo was Sirius B or a white dwarf. But Emmeya is unknown to modern astronomy.

The legends of the mysterious people said that in the beginning, the largest star was Potolo. It emitted a bright red color, clearly visible from Earth. This is exactly how Sirius was contemplated by Seneca, Claudius Ptolemy and Sima Qian in their time. In the 2nd century AD, a huge star exploded and turned into a white dwarf. Another star entered the “arena”, namely Sigi Tolo or Sirius-A. It is this cosmic formation, emitting a bluish-white glow, that astronomers have been seeing in the night sky for 1800 years.

This interpretation of distant events explained the discrepancy between the colors of the bright star in different periods of time. But what was surprising was the fact that none of the ancient astronomers mentioned any explosion. It turned out that only the mysterious people were aware of the events, and the rest of the planet, as they say, was neither in ear nor in spirit.

As for Emmeya Tolo, unknown to modern science, the Dogon are completely clear about this. This object also rotates around a common center of rotation, making one revolution every 50 years. But its trajectory is much longer than that of its counterparts. Therefore, this star moves at a higher speed. In terms of mass, it is 4 times lighter than Sirius-B, and its radius is 1.5 times greater. Accordingly, the density of this cosmic formation is less than that of a white dwarf.

The Dogon are not limited to information about three stars. Their myths and legends tell much more about space. The priests of the mysterious people know that the stars in the sky are part of a huge cosmic formation called Yalu Ulo - the Milky Way galaxy. In addition to this formation, there are other star systems located at a great distance from the Earth. The center of the world around which the Universe revolves is Sirius. It is through it that the invisible axis passes, and nearby stars represent the support of outer space.

This space is not a “lifeless desert” at all. There are many intelligent beings living in space. They are not similar to earthlings, but in their intelligence they are in no way inferior to them, and in many cases they are superior. As for the solar system, the priests of the mysterious people name five planets revolving around the Sun. These are Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. At the same time, they call Mercury a star rotating near Venus, and Jupiter only has four satellites. They don't mention Uranus and Neptune at all. That is, these two planets are unknown to them.

In his scientific reports, Marcel Griaule mentioned a deep cave on the mountainside. The entrance to the cave was guarded by a priest specially chosen for this purpose. This was his lifelong responsibility. After the death of a person, another priest took the place and was constantly at the entrance until the end of his days. What was stored in this cave? Its walls were covered with drawings that were at least 700 years old. The rock inscriptions depicted the history of the emergence of intelligent life on planet Earth.

According to the drawings, the mysterious Dogon tribe flew to the blue planet from Sirius. But, having arrived on Earth, the distant ancestors of today’s natives turned out to be completely unadapted to local conditions. Then mysterious creatures flew from the bluish-pale star, whom the Dogon called nommo - water drinkers.

They were tall and always wore transparent spacesuits filled with water. These creatures were inseparable from the native tribe for 100 long years. Mysterious entities taught the Dogon agriculture, hunting, explained how to make medicines from plants, how to build their own homes. Convinced that their students already felt confident enough on Earth, the aliens flew away, but promised to return.

All these stories, legends, rock paintings resembled a beautiful fairy tale. But the information in this tale largely corresponded to the truth, which the ignorant people living in the remote regions of Africa simply could not know.

The scientific world, naturally, became interested in this whole unusual situation. The Dogons came under the close attention of objective and serious researchers. It must be said right away that the cave mentioned in the reports of Marcel Griaule was subsequently not found. But the priests with whom the researchers spoke even today showed amazing knowledge in such matters as the structure of outer space and, in particular, spoke in detail about Sirius-A, Sirius-B and the third unknown star.

At the same time, the knowledge of the mysterious people had certain flaws. So they called only 4 satellites of the gas giant Jupiter, namely: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Nowadays, any schoolchild knows that there are as many as 47 of them, and this is far from the final number. The mysterious people knew nothing about Uranus and Neptune, let alone Pluto. The conclusion suggested itself: the Dogon have knowledge not even of yesterday, but of the day before yesterday.

The aliens, if they decided to tell the African tribe about space, should have given truly complete and truthful information. Otherwise they said about the third star Sirius, but forgot about Neptune and Pluto.

Consequently, there were no aliens from outer space, and even in spacesuits filled with water. And there was, most likely, some unknown missionary who was seriously interested in astronomy. It appeared on the Bandiagara plateau in the 19th century. As a true Catholic, striving to convert people to the true faith, he at the same time enriched them with the unique knowledge about the structure of the Universe that humanity possessed at that time.

This knowledge, however, went against the laws of God, but apparently the unknown missionary was a rather free-thinking person and successfully combined God’s word and scientific progress.

As for the third star of the bluish-white beauty, this could simply be the fantasy of the venerable husband. After all, his stories about space were not a dry scientific report, but a bright and colorful narrative. Otherwise, who would listen to him?

At the same time, as we know, Neptune was discovered in 1846, and the world learned about Sirius-B in 1862. So the missionary, talking about the distant bright star of the constellation Canis Major, could not help but know about the 8th planet of the solar system. However, he did not mention a word about her. He also didn’t say anything about Uranus, which received planetary status in 1783.

All this indicates that most likely there was no mysterious missionary, or there were several similar people who gave the Dogon fragmentary knowledge about the structure of the Universe in different periods of time. Be that as it may, it is the version about the missionary that is the most acceptable for official science. It more or less plausibly and realistically explains the mystery of the mysterious African people. All other hypotheses and assumptions look so fantastic that serious researchers call them complete nonsense.

The version about aliens can only be confirmed by the discovery of the 3rd star of Sirius. But so far nothing like this has been discovered in the cosmic abyss. So let’s be patient and wait until official science completely refutes or confirms the presence of an invisible cosmic body next to the bluish-white beauty.

As for the explosion of the Sirius-B star, this statement of the Dogon is also in great doubt. If such a cataclysm had occurred, then a large dust cloud could have been observed near Sirius A for many millennia. However, nothing like this has been noticed by modern telescopes.

Dogon and Sirius are one of the most intriguing mysteries of our time. Thanks to the light hand of the French ethnographer Marcel Griaule, humanity received another riddle, which modern science is not yet able to solve. We can only wait for time to dot the i's and lift the mysterious veil that has surrounded the African people, who have been almost completely isolated from the outside world for almost 80 years.

Probably many tons of paper have been written about the astronomical ideas of the African Dogon people, and in almost any article devoted to the issue of paleovisit one can find a brief summary of their astronomical ideas. Unfortunately, a more or less thorough presentation of the astronomical aspect of the Dogon mythological tradition was published in the mid-seventies, and is hardly available to the reader at the present time, so I will allow myself to remind you of what, in fact, we are talking about.

The Dogon live in the southeast of the Republic of Mali in western Africa. This nation numbers approximately 800 thousand people, the vast majority of whom are Muslims, a small part of Christians, and an even smaller part of pagans. The Dogon have their own languages ​​and their own rich history. Other civilizations had little influence on Dogon culture. This is understandable, since they live in hard-to-reach areas where conquerors and missionaries could not reach for a long time. Little is known about the origins of the Dogon. Their ancestors settled in Mali in the 10th-12th centuries, displacing other tribes and partially adopting their traditions. Strictly speaking, the Dogon are not much different from many other tribes in this region.

But what then attracts the attention of ufologists and astronomers to them? And the fact is that, being a rather backward African tribe, the Dogon have amazing knowledge about the constellation Canis Major. To understand the depth of knowledge of the Dogon, you need to plunge into their beliefs.

The heavenly creator in the Dogon religion is Amma, at first Amma was only an emptiness that existed outside of space and time. Nothing existed except this emptiness until Amma opened his eyes. His thought “came out of the spiral,” and our world began to grow rapidly—an idea that some researchers believe is a mythological retelling of the Big Bang Theory. The creator god created Nommo, the first living creature. Soon it divided, and part of it rebelled against Amma. Contrary to the will of his creator, Nommo (or rather, his “separated” part - Ogo) built a ship and after a long journey descended to Earth. Amma did not forgive his disobedience and eventually decided to destroy his rebellious child: according to local beliefs, Nommo arrived on Earth during a “firestorm.” Allegedly, it was thanks to him that the Dogon acquired valuable knowledge about the Universe.

Dogon mythology is closely connected with Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, part of the constellation Canis Major. Sirius is 22 times brighter than the Sun and, according to legend, it is the “homeland” of the god Amma.

In Dogon myths, Sirius is described as a double star - just like in the ideas of astronomers. An invisible white dwarf rotates around Sirius A (in Dogon language Sigi tolo) - Sirius B (in Dogon language - Po tolo). Nowadays, scientists are confident in the correctness of this interpretation. But if we can observe Sirius A with the naked eye, then Sirius B can only be seen through a telescope. The white dwarf was discovered only in 1862, and it is unclear how the Dogon learned about it. But that’s not all: the Dogon “know” that the rotation period of Sirius B is 50 Earth years (according to modern astronomical data - 51 years), and every half century they organize the Sigi holiday, thereby marking the “rebirth of the world.” Just a coincidence? But the Dogon also know that Sirius B is a white dwarf - they even designate this star as a white stone.

Surprisingly, according to the Dogon priests, another star revolves around Sirius A - Sirius C (this is a conventional designation for now). Its existence has not yet been officially confirmed, but in 1995, astronomers Duvent and Benest reported that they had observed Sirius C. Perhaps Sirius C really exists and is a small star.

It is believed that in addition to knowledge about Sirius, the Dogon, even in ancient times, also had information about the structure of the solar system - they, for example, were aware of the rings of Saturn. In addition, they divide celestial bodies into planets, stars, satellites, etc. The Dogon are sure that people also live on other planets, although they are different from you and me.

Evidence of contact

All this knowledge is known thanks to the book “The Pale Fox” by the French anthropologist Marcel Griaule. He and his colleague Germaine Dieterlen studied Dogon culture for more than twenty years. Other researchers have also put forward the hypothesis of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. One of them was, for example, the writer Robert Temple, who published the book “The Mystery of Sirius”. In the second half of the 20th century, the public's attention was also attracted by the work of the French astronomer Eric Guerrier, in which he convincingly proved the veracity of the idea of ​​paleocontact.

However, many scientists actively criticize these assumptions. One of them is an anthropologist from Belgium Walter van Beek, who spent twelve years of his life communicating with the Dogon. According to him, during the entire time he was among these people, he did not hear anything that was mentioned in the work of Marcel Griaule - about any Sirius or the structure of the solar system.

Dogon ideas about the structure of celestial bodies are far from a strictly scientific understanding. Their knowledge of Sirius is part of their traditional beliefs and is closely intertwined with myths. To indicate the movement of Sirius B around Sirius A, the Dogon made sketches. These could be figures laid out on the ground or inscribed on stone. There are also oral traditions about Sirius. One of the Dogon ritual songs contains the following words:

The road of the mask is the star Digitaria (Sirius B), this road goes like Digitaria.

In any case, the French ethnographer Marcel Griaule, who knew the intricacies of the Dogon languages, insisted on this translation option.
adverb. But there is an alternative, literal translation of these lines, which completely changes their meaning:

The road of the mask is a straight vertical, this road goes straight.

Versions and assumptions

Some researchers have tried to explain the Dogon mystery without resorting to “alien” versions. But these attempts sometimes
only further strengthened the position of the paleocontact hypothesis.

Take, for example, the common version about ancient telescopes. It is known that the Dogon were in contact with the ancient Egyptians. Theoretically, they could have inherited astronomical knowledge from them. Another question is: was there anything to inherit? After all, even if we assume that the ancient Egyptians had primitive telescopes, they still would not have allowed them to see Sirius B: it became known only with the advent of modern equipment.

Another version says that the Dogon could have... their own telescope. True, in this case we are talking only about a natural phenomenon that can replace optics. There is an assumption that water, rotating at a constant speed in a closed space, under certain conditions could form a giant concave mirror and would make it possible to distinguish celestial bodies reflected in it. Supposedly this is how you can see stars that are hidden from the naked eye...

An equally strange hypothesis states that the Dogon had unique vision, which allowed them to see Sirius V. Indeed, a trained eye is able to distinguish objects at a considerable distance. But in the case of Sirius B, even the sharpest vision will be powerless. In general, if you believe the words of Marcel Griaule, the Dogon knew not only about the very fact of the existence of Sirius B, but also about its orbit, mass and density. Not to mention the knowledge of the African tribe regarding other celestial bodies. It is impossible to explain all this with some ancient devices or physiological characteristics of the Dogon.

There is, however, another version that can give a comprehensive answer to the question about the mystery of the Dogon: knowledge about astronomical bodies was brought by European missionaries who visited the Dogon even before the expedition of Marcel Griaule. Late XIX
century (Sirius B was discovered a little earlier) became a period of greatest activity for Christian missions, and perhaps the Dogon subsequently wove the stories of the white-skinned guests into their traditional value system, and subsequent generations accepted them as the real ancient traditions of their ancestors.

On the other hand, it is not so easy to imagine that European missionaries told Africans about the structure of our Universe, and not about Jesus Christ. However, the version that aliens left astronomical knowledge completely unnecessary in everyday life to a wild tribe also sounds quite ridiculous.

Paleocontact: truth and fiction

To our question, the famous ufologist, coordinator of the Cosmopoisk association, Vadim Chernobrov, answered:

- Based on the available facts, we see that in some astronomical matters the Dogon level even exceeded the modern one. Where they got this knowledge is a mystery. It is not even known for certain in which village the main material evidence of this knowledge is located. The main interest is, of course, the data on Sirius. One of the Dogon myths tells of a system consisting of three stars. According to Dogon information, the third star (Sirius C, still unknown to science) rotates around Sirius A along a longer trajectory. Official science for a long time did not recognize the idea of ​​the existence of Sirius C, but then scientists observed X-ray emission from the Sirius system, and it became clear that a third star may exist.

But examples of paleocontact are not uncommon. Including on the territory of Russia. Take, for example, the Ainu. This people once inhabited the vast territory of Southern Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, the southern tip of Kamchatka and modern Japan. The origin of Ainu mythology remains a mystery. Works have not yet been written about a possible connection in the past between the Ainu and a highly developed civilization, but the main evidence of paleocontacts that once existed is the strange figurines of the Ainu several thousand years before our era. These figurines apparently were preserved for a long time as family heirlooms, but then (probably at the time of the arrival of the Japanese) the Ainu began to bury them in the ground in accordance with mourning rituals. The figurines were buried, surrounded on all sides with stones and covered with stone slabs. In this strange form, dogu - the oldest possible evidence of aliens visiting the Earth - is still found.

But it is also possible that Van Beek communicated with those representatives of the Dogon who do not have such knowledge... The fact is that Dogon legends can only be retold by initiates - the Olubaru. It is known that Marcel Griaule had a long conversation with several Dogon people who had access to secret knowledge. One of the patriarchs, a Dogon named Ongnonlu, described to Griaule the basis of the system of traditional beliefs. Subsequently, the words of Ongnonlu were supplemented by other noble Dogon.

On the territory of the Republic of Mali, in the area of ​​the Bandiagara plateau, there lives a small agricultural people, numbering no more than 300 thousand people, who call themselves the Dogon. They came here sometime between the tenth and thirteenth centuries AD, and brought with them their high altar, Lebe, and their strange and archaic customs and beliefs.
Since 1931, a group of French researchers led by Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen studied the customs and beliefs of this people. Dogon myths are closed from prying ears; they can only be told by members of the Ava (mask society) Olubaru, who knows the “language of Sirius” - Shigi so. By the decision of the Dogon patriarchs, Marcel Griaule was initiated into secret knowledge.
According to the Dogon, the Sirius system is very complex. Its main component is called Sigi tolo ("tolo" is "star" in the Dogon language), and its satellites are called Po tolo and Emme ya tolo. The Po star, they say, is white, like po grain (fonio, a type of millet). In Dogon sanctuaries this star is symbolized by a very white stone. According to the Dogon views, all things in the world consist of four basic elements - earth, water, air and fire. In Potolo, the element "earth" is replaced by "metal" in all its forms, and especially in the form of "sagala". It is a metal “more brilliant than iron, and so heavy that all earthly creatures, united, could not lift even a particle.” Therefore, Poe's star is "the smallest and heaviest of all stars."
In 1862, Sirius B was discovered - a tiny star visually located so close to the main component of the system - Sirius A (from Earth it is visible at an angle of 7.6 seconds). Sirius A is the brightest star in the earth's sky, the glow of its satellite is almost ten thousand times weaker; its relative magnitude is 8.5. At the beginning of our century, it was established that Sirius B is a white dwarf, that is, a star that, despite its small size, has enormous mass and density. This correlates quite well with the views of the Dogon.
It is believed that the resolution of the human eye is, on average, equal to one arc minute. The theoretical limit above which the eye by nature cannot distinguish anything is twelve arc seconds, but there are very few people on Earth with such visual acuity. But even twelve arc seconds is not enough to distinguish Sirius B. By the way, the satellite of Sirius was first discovered mathematically by European astronomical science, based on deviations in the movement of Sirius A, and only then was discovered visually. In addition, having seen this tiny star near Sirius, you still need to guess what it is, but the Dogon know both the high density of Sirius B and the period of its revolution around Sirius A, equal to 50 years. In order to calculate these properties of a star, a developed mathematical apparatus is needed, which, as far as is now known, no civilization other than the European one had.
So, if the identity of Potolo and Sirius B is difficult to doubt, then the situation is different with Emme ia Tolo. The third satellite of Sirius is unknown to modern astronomy. But its existence is assumed! An interesting idea of ​​the Dogon is that Po Tolo and Emme ya Tolo make one revolution around Sigi Tolo in approximately the same time - 50 years, although the trajectory of Emme ya Tolo is longer. From the standpoint of modern celestial mechanics, such an orbit of a celestial body is extremely unlikely, if possible at all. Emme ya tolo is larger than Po tolo and 4 times lighter. She is also called “the little sun of women” - Yau nai dagi.
The two planets revolving around Emme Ya Tolo are called Ara Tolo and Yu Tolo. It must be said that the Dogon perfectly distinguish stars (tolo), planets (tolo tanaze, moving stars) and satellites (tolo gonoze, spinning stars). Their solar system consists of 5 planets - Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and, apparently, Saturn.
The Dogon know that the Earth rotates around its axis and, moreover, revolves around the Sun. They know that the Moon - Ie Pilu - "dry and dead" revolves around the Earth. Jupiter - Dana tolo - has four satellites, and Saturn has Yalu ulo tolo - “permanent halo” - a ring. These planets, along with Venus (Tolo Yazu) and Mars (Yapunu tolo) orbit the Sun. The Dogon are unaware of the existence of the outer planets and Mercury, unless they identify it with Yazu Danala tolo - “the star that accompanies Venus.”
The Dogon know that the stars are distant from the Earth, only the Sun is close to it. Sirius, called the “navel of the world,” occupies a major role in a group of stars that includes the constellation Orion and several nearby (in the sky) stars. The latter include: the Pleiades, Enegerin Tolo - “Star of the Goat Shepherd” (Gamma Canis Minor), Tara Tolo - Procyon, etc. The totality of these stars constitutes the “internal” system of stars or the “support of the foundation of the world”, directly involved in life on Earth. “The external system consists of other, more distant luminaries “that interfere to a lesser extent in human life.”
This system forms the "spiral star world" of Yalu Ulo, which can be seen in the sky as the Milky Way - a very clear definition of our Galaxy. Yalu Ulo rotates around an axis passing through the Polar Star and the constellation of the Southern Cross (in fact, the poles of the Galaxy are projected: the northern poles onto the constellation Coma Berenices, and the southern ones onto the constellation Sculptor. It is curious that the Polar - Southern Cross axis lies almost in the same plane with axis of the Galaxy and “almost” - the discrepancy is 5.7 degrees - perpendicular to it).
There are infinitely many such “spiral star worlds,” or, in modern terminology, galaxies, in the universe, and the universe itself is “infinite, but measurable.” The universe is inhabited by living beings. On “other lands,” according to the Dogon, there live “horned, tailed, winged, crawling people.” As for plants, for example, the seeds of pumpkin and sorrel “before getting to Earth” lay on the edge of the Milky Way and “sprouted in all the worlds of the Universe.” How did the Dogon know all this, how did they at least themselves is this explained?
"Pale Fox" Yurugu, the hero of a large cycle of myths, symbolizes drought, disorder, and is the opposite of moisture, light, order in the person of Nommo. Among the Dogon drawings there is the following: “The Fox descends in an ark from the star Po.” In another picture - the Sun and Sirius (with the diameter of Sirius exceeding the diameter of the Sun), connected by a curve twisting around each of the luminaries, like a space flight route. However, the Fox was not the only one who landed on Earth; a little later, another ark brought Nommo to our planet, who is depicted by the Dogon as a half-man, half-snake with flexible, jointless limbs and a forked tongue. The ancestors of people came to Earth with him.
This ark landed after eight years of “swinging” in the sky, “raising a cloud of dust with an air whirlwind.” People who, at the moment of descent and landing impact, saw the shine of Sigi Tolo, were now present at the first sunrise, which rose in the east and from that moment illuminated the universe. This description also, to some extent, testifies in favor of arriving from the Sirius system.
It is interesting to mention the brilliance of Sigi Tolo during the flight and the fact that the passengers of the ark saw the Sun only after arriving on Earth. The descent of the ark is symbolically depicted on the facade of the Dogon sanctuary. Rhombuses symbolize the “quadrangular” “heavenly space”, rectangles symbolize the “four-sided” earthly space. Between these figures at the top of the façade are the stars: Po tolo and Emme Ya tolo, as well as “the theoretical celestial place where Nommo di is located.” Sometimes this place is identified with Enegerin tolo (Gamma Canis Minor). What prompted the Dogon to “settle” Nommo on this star?
And at the same time, the Dogon mythology is very archaic. They believe, for example, that the universe arose from drops of the blood of a victim; They believe that the rotation of Po tolo around Sigi tolo symbolizes the rite of circumcision, and the circular movements of celestial bodies are similar to the circulation of blood. Moreover, this mythology looks very integral, and this makes the hypothesis of borrowing Dogon knowledge from modern European astronomers doubtful.
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is borrowing. By the time Griaule was initiated into secret knowledge, information about Sirius B was known very widely in Europe; moreover, in the twenties of our century, missionaries worked among the Dogon who, knowing about the Dogon’s special interest in Sirius, could “introduce " them to the views of modern science, if not... if not for the closed nature of Dogon mythology.
Before Griaule, none of the Europeans were initiated into the secret knowledge of the Dogon, and therefore could not correct them! The missionaries could hardly even know about the special interest in Sirius. It can be argued that the Dogon themselves could change the myths - and this question can be given a well-founded negative answer.
In order for such a correction to be made, a number of circumstances must coincide, namely:
Access to mythology (everything is simple here).
Access to scientific information (somewhat more difficult given distance and language barriers).
European education (without it, it is impossible to understand modern astronomical concepts, especially considering that the Dogon do not even have a written language).
The Olubaru agree that the mythology that serves as the basis of their life will be changed (this is almost impossible, given the conservatism of the Dogon).
A very extraordinary mind that will preserve the integrity of mythology (a very rare occurrence).
In addition, the unknown creator of the mythology would have to hurry, since the assumption of the existence of the third satellite of Sirius dates back to the 20s, and the Griaule expedition began its work among the Dogon in 1931. The coincidence of all these circumstances seems extremely unrealistic. In addition, a recently living “great prophet” would have left traces in mythology...
The unique national character of the Dogon should also be taken into account. Here is what Kungarma Kodio, Dogon by nationality, graduate student at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, said about this:
"...We, the Dogon, have carefully preserved our identity for many centuries, rejecting any outside influences. When it was impossible to resist force with force, we resisted with perseverance. I could introduce you to my friends, one of whom is a Muslim by religion, and the second is a Christian, but in fact both of them are Dogon, and only Dogon. The patriarchs of our villages still retain their influence; the mask society organizes religious ceremonies and festivals, during which legends about the creation of the universe are told in the secret language "Sigi So". history of the human race... Probably, only by “turning in on yourself” could you preserve the knowledge that interested you so much..."
But let’s imagine that such a coincidence of circumstances did happen. Until now, we have paid attention only to the coincidences of modern views on the world with Dogon astronomy, and have not said anything about the discrepancies, which may be of no less interest.
Firstly, white dwarfs are the last stage of the evolution of a star with a mass close to the Sun, therefore Sirius B was once much larger than it is now. Modern astronomy cannot even guess at what point in time the star transitioned to the white dwarf state. About two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote the following about Sirius: “The redness of the Dog Star is deeper, that of Mars is softer, Jupiter does not have it at all...”. In Ptolemy's Almagest, dated to the second century AD, Sirius is also included in the list of red stars. However, now this star is blue, and to be convinced of this, just look at the sky.
A completely natural assumption arises - approximately in the second - third centuries AD, Sirius B exploded and turned into a white dwarf. We find confirmation of this point of view in Dogon mythology, according to which, during the first year after the appearance of people on Earth, Po Tolo suddenly flared up, and then began to gradually fade and after 240 years became completely invisible. At first glance, everything is fine - but, unfortunately, only at first glance.
The explosion of a star, followed by its transformation into a white dwarf, will cause not only a monstrous flash, which should have remained in the memories of our ancestors as an extraordinary and grandiose phenomenon, but also a powerful wave of hard radiation, traces of which we would, of course, notice (if we ourselves survived), but neither one nor the other is recorded in history. Even the Dogon, the only people who recorded the flash, did not note its particular brightness.
When did the cataclysm occur? In the catalog of the 10th century Persian astronomer Al-Sufi, Sirius already appears as a blue star, while Ptolemy, let me remind you, in the second century designated it as a red star. Consequently, the explosion of Sirius B occurred no later than the tenth century AD but not earlier than the second. What do the Dogon people say about this?
The main holiday of the Dogon is Sigi Day, celebrated every 60 years, which is somehow connected with the fifty-year period of the revolution of Sirius B. Researchers were unable to figure out the reason for the discrepancy between these cycles, but Griaule and Dieterlen were confident in their unambiguous semantic connection. According to ethnographic data (relics remain from each festival), it is possible to trace the celebrations of Sigi back to the 12th, and according to some information even to the 6th century AD, which well confirms the above figures.
So maybe V.V. Rubtsov was right when he suggested that 240 years of increased brightness of the Potolo could be a kind of “discharge of a mine” that could, otherwise, seriously damage life on Earth? And who “discharged” this “mine”?
Are there any other observations that can confirm the antiquity and originality of Dogon knowledge about the Sirius system? It is clear that this role would be best suited to some detail of mythology, which modern science will discover later than it learns from the Dogon legends. And there seems to be a candidate for such a detail. In Dogon mythology there is the following description: “when Po Tolo is near Sirius, it intensifies its brilliance; when Po Tolo moves away, it begins to blink so that the observer seems to see many stars.”
In 1981, an article by Alexei Arkhipov, “Did the Dogons observe the satellite of Sirius,” appeared in Tekhnika Molodezhi. Modern astronomy does not classify Sirius as a variable star, although its brightness, according to various catalogs, differs quite significantly. The author of the article collected data from measurements of the brightness of Sirius made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The measurements were brought to a single scale, for which the photometric system of the Zinner catalog of 1926 was taken. If you now look at the resulting graph, it becomes clearly visible that the star’s brightness changes with a period of 50 years, and the amplitude of the change is 10.7 times greater than the root-mean-square measurement error.
Moreover, if you superimpose on this graph the curve of the change in distance from Sirius B to the main component, it will become clear that the brightness of the star is highest when the satellite comes closest to it, and this is fully consistent with the mythological ideas of the Dogon. So the hopes that the Dogon knowledge was not borrowed from European civilization received additional confirmation. However, you shouldn’t be happy about this, at least for the time being.
The fact is that Dogon mythology reveals a number of details that in the sixties and seventies seemed to only add credibility to the Dogon stories, but now they look somewhat... strange. Judge for yourself.
The Ark on which Nommo arrived on Earth is, according to Dogon mythology, a two-deck structure with a round bottom, divided into sixty compartments, and so far only the contents of twenty-two of them have been revealed to people. This ark landed after eight years of “swinging” in the sky, raising a cloud of dust with an air whirlwind. There is even an image of the flight trajectory (I have already spoken about this), and all these details, especially the trajectory, suggest... a rocket spaceship, the speed of which is obviously lower than light.