The Dogon tribe lives on the territory of the state of Mali, who consider themselves the descendants of aliens from the planetary system of Sirius. For thousands of years, the priests of this tribe have kept the most accurate information about the structure of the solar system, about the four stars of Sirius and the Big Bang, as a result of which the universe was formed. Where did such knowledge come from among people who are still in an almost primitive state?
Why do we need low ceilings
The name of the tribe was invented by the Europeans, it comes from the English Dog Star - literally "dog star" - and means people from the constellation Canis Major, whose alpha is Sirius.
The Dogon live in small adobe huts, which are close to each other. A separate building is a house for general meetings - togun. The men of the village come there to discuss pressing issues. The togun have very low ceilings, which do not allow to stand up to their full height - which means, sort things out with the help of fists.
In another detached house, located in the center of the settlement, the chief of the tribe lives. After his election to a high position, he is obliged to leave his family and live alone. He is considered the village's spiritual guide and is such a respected person that no one is allowed to touch him.
The total number of Dogon is quite numerous - there are about 800 thousand of them. They speak several closely related languages and lead a similar lifestyle.
The tribe is engaged in agriculture, growing corn and legumes, and raising sheep, goats and chickens. The fields are cultivated together, and the harvest is distributed according to the number of eaters in the family. Some Dogon are artisans - blacksmiths, potters, tanners. They live in separate groups, marriages between farmers and artisans are prohibited.
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Dancing on stilts
Until the early 1930s, the Dogon were practically an isolated people who lived in remote areas among the mountains, on the narrow terraces of which their villages were located.
Typical Dogon village
That is why they have managed to preserve their original culture for millennia.
The tribal calendar is fundamentally different from other calendars, which are usually based on the lunar cycle and have a seven-day week (one quarter of the lunar month). For the Dogon, a week consists of five days, the last of which is for rest.
The main festival of the tribe is called Sigi and takes place every 50 years. But every year there is a reminder of this holiday, called Des Masques, which lasts the entire five-day week. Its main action is a costume dance performance that tells about the history of the Dogon.
For ritual dances, huge wooden masks are used, each of which consists of a front part and a pommel above it. There are eighty such masks in total, they depict people and animals, each of them corresponds to a certain costume in which the participant in the performance depicts his character.
Dogon in a ritual mask
According to dogon beliefs, such ritual dances connect the world of the dead with the world of the living and serve to communicate with ancestors. Masks are sacred: neither the women of the tribe, nor strangers can wear them. At the same time, men playing the role of women often stand on stilts to show the high position of mothers in the tribe.
After the end of the holiday, the masks are returned to a special storage, the whereabouts of which only local priests know.
Modern knowledge in cave drawings
For the civilized world, the Dogon tribe was discovered by French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germain Deterlin. In 1931, while traveling across Africa, they discovered a new people - and lived there for 10 years to study it. In their works, scientists focused on the description of the life and culture of the Dogon. It was only in 1950 that Griaule and Deterlin published an article reporting on the astronomical knowledge of the tribe. It was this article that became a real sensation.
Comparative sizes of Sirius A, Sirius B, our Sun and several other stars
Here are some dates for comparison. In 1924, Edwin Hubble proved that spiral nebulae are composed of stars. In 1927, scientists were able to determine the speed of rotation of our Galaxy, and in 1950 they determined that it also has a spiral shape. In 1862, astronomers identified Sirius as a double star, and already in our time it has been suggested that the Sirius system consists of four celestial bodies, and the debate on this matter is still ongoing.
But it turned out that all this modern knowledge had long been known in the primitive Dogon tribe! Their priests have complete information about the planets orbiting Sirius, as well as detailed information about the universe, the solar system, its celestial bodies and their satellites. Moreover, the Dogon do not even have a written language! Knowledge sacred to the tribe is transmitted in 8 form of oral stories and rock paintings.
In the mountains where the Dogon live, there is a huge cave with wall paintings, the latest of which is about 700 years old. A man always sits near the entrance to the dungeon, guarding the sacred place. The tribe feeds him. To him, like to the leader, no one dares to touch. After the death of the "keeper", another person sits down in his place.
Cave drawings convey incredibly accurate astronomical knowledge. In particular, that there are rotating rings around Saturn, as well as in what orbits the planets of the solar system, including Neptune, Uranus and even Pluto, move. But the most revered images concern Sirius. Judging by them, the Dogon believe that Sirius is a system of four stars. The pictures also show that one of these stars exploded many years ago.
More recently, scientists were able to calculate the period of revolution of the dwarf Sirius B around the large star Sirius A. And it turned out that it is almost 50 Earth years. It turns out that the Dogon Sigi holiday has a clear chronological justification.
The mystery of the ancient telescope
The wall pictures also show the history of the arrival of guests from space to Earth. One of the drawings shows an aircraft descending from the sky in the form of a saucer standing on three supports. It also depicts creatures emerging from the apparatus, similar to reptiles or dolphins, who communicate with people. The aliens are depicted in spacesuits.
The Dogon call the aliens Nommo and are convinced that they not only passed on invaluable knowledge to the tribe, but also married local women. From these marriages, children were born, human blood mixed with the blood of aliens.
In the sacred cave there is a deep lake, above which there is a direct exit to the surface. A section of the starry sky is visible through this hole. If you stand at a certain point, then the surface of the water will act as a telescope mirror aimed at Sirius. How ancient people could create such a "telescope" is still unclear, but it can be used to observe the stars and planets of the Sirius system.
According to Dogon mythology, two planets once revolved around the third star of this system. On one of them, Ara-Tolo, the reptilian people of Nommo lived, on the other, Yu-Tolo, the intelligent birds of Balako. At some point, their scientists discovered that the nearest star Sirius B was about to explode and the catastrophe threatens the complete destruction of both civilizations. Nommo and Balako have dispatched several interstellar expeditions to find planets suitable for life.
Arriving on Earth, the Nommo found that it was suitable for them. They produced offspring and flew away to inform their people about it. But a tragedy has already occurred on the alien planet - the orbits of the stars of the Sirius system approached, and Sirius B exploded, destroying all life on the surrounding planets.
In memory of the lost stellar homeland, every 50 years, during the period of the approach of the stars of Sirius, the Dogon hold the sacred holiday of Sigi - the Day of Remembrance of the Dead.
We are waiting for guests from space
The Dogon tribe sees its mission in keeping the knowledge transferred to them by aliens and not marrying strangers, remaining the descendants of aliens who are able to become Nommo again and revive the stellar civilization. According to the priests, the remaining Nommo living on other planets will someday fly to Earth and take all Dogon with them.
The legends and drawings of this primitive tribe seem incredible to many. Skeptics talk about possible coincidences, about inaccuracies in the translation of oral stories, about the fact that missionaries working in Africa could transfer modern knowledge to primitive people …
But some authoritative scientists (for example, the French researcher Eric Guerrier or the American professor Robert Temple, author of the book "The Mystery of Sirius") admit that in ancient times the arrival of aliens in Africa did take place.
The famous American astronomer Carl Sagan believed that evidence of the visit of aliens could be either indisputable artifacts in the form of objects or devices that earthlings were not able to create, or scientific knowledge that primitive people could not gain empirically. And it is very likely that the knowledge of the Dogon tribe confirms this theory.
Platon Viktorov