The African Dogon tribe, living in the southeast of Mali, firmly believes in its extraterrestrial origin, considering its distant ancestors to be aliens from the star Sirius from the constellation Canis Major. The total number of Dogon reaches about 800 thousand people (in 2007). These are mainly Muslims, in a number of areas the Dogons retain their traditional beliefs, about 10% of them are Christians (Catholics and Protestants). The Dogon live in the area around the Bandiagara Highlands escarpment, on the adjacent Seno plateau and plain, and in several border villages in Burkina Faso.
Most likely, only ethnographers would know about this tribe, but the Dogon became famous all over the world for their extraordinary knowledge of astronomy in the middle of the 20th century, and since then they have been given a lot of attention by both scientists and journalists.
In the south of Mali, on the inaccessible Bandiagara plateau in the impenetrable jungle, a French expedition led by ethnographers Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlin in 1931 unexpectedly discovered the Dogon people. They interested scientists so much that Griaule and his colleagues studied these amazing Africans right up to 1952. And there was something to be surprised at: living in complete isolation from the outside world, the Dogons from generation to generation for millennia passed on ancient astronomical knowledge, which at that time even modern science could only guess.
The Dogon cosmogonic myths show that they divide the celestial bodies into stars ("tolo"), planets ("tolo gonose"), and satellites ("tolo tonase"). Unlike some modern scientists who believe in the exclusivity of mankind, the Dogon speak of numerous worlds inhabited by various living things, where, in their opinion, life began with plants. They are convinced that "in other lands there are horned, tailed, winged, crawling people."
The Dogons also have their own "theory" of the formation of the Universe: "At the beginning of time, the almighty Amma, the supreme deity, was in a huge rotating egg, in the center of which a tiny seed was born. When it grew and burst, the universe appeared. " Doesn't this remind you of the "big bang" theory that scientists are still arguing about? But the "Milky Way", according to their ideas, represents a "spiral stellar world", and there are "infinitely many" such spiral worlds in the Universe. It is worth noting that the spiral shape of our galaxy was only proven in 1950!
The Dogon knowledge of the distant Sirius system, which could only be obtained with the help of powerful telescopes, and even then not all, turned out to be especially mysterious. For the first time, Griaule and Dieterlen told the world about the amazing astronomical knowledge of the Dogons. It came out in 1951 and was called the Sudanese Sirius System. Then Marcel Griaule wrote the book "The Pale Fox", followed by a number of publications and books by other authors, for example, the book by Robert Temple "The Mystery of Sirius". The culture and mysterious astronomical knowledge of the Dogon became known not only to scientists, but also to the general public.
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They know more about Sirius than astronomers
The greatest interest, both among scientists and among supporters of paleocontact (visits to our planet in the distant past by aliens from outer space), aroused the Dogon's knowledge of Sirius. According to the Dogon cosmogonic myths, Sirius is a triple star, its system consists of the main star Sigi tolo and the stars Po tolo and Emme yatolo. Moreover, the star Po tolo, despite its small size, has a colossal weight and density. Dogons say: "It is the smallest and heaviest of all stars and consists of a metal called" sagolu ", which is brighter than iron, and so heavy that all earthly beings, united, could not lift even a particle …"
The Dogon also know that Sirius B revolves around the main star Sigi tolo (Sirius A) for 50 Earth years (according to scientists - 49.9 years). Moreover, when Sirius B in an elongated orbit approaches Sirius A, the Dogon say, he begins to shine brighter. At one time the astronomer A. V. Arkhipov decided to check this statement of the Dogons. Comparing the data on the brightness of Sirius A over a long period (the scientist came to the conclusion that the brightness of the star actually fluctuates and the periodicity of this phenomenon is 50 years; as we already know, this is the period of rotation of Sirius B around Sirius A.
Incredibly, it turned out that the closer to Sirius A its companion, the brighter the star shines. The Dogon were completely right!
It is worth noting that Sirius B was discovered in 1862, and scientists learned about its very high density only before the start of the First World War. But Emme ya tolo (putative Sirius C), the second satellite of Sirius A, has not yet been discovered, although, judging by the deviations in the movement of the main star, scientists assume its existence. However, it has not yet been found. True, in 1995 astronomers Duvent and Benest stated that they had observed Sirius C, but its existence has not yet been officially recognized. At the same time, the Dogon know that two planets (Aratolo and Yutolo) revolve around this still hypothetical satellite for science. Fantastic, and more!
This is evidenced by the latest "Catalog of components of binary and multiple stars", compiled from the results of the astronomical satellite "Hipparcas".
The mystery of the origin of the Dogon
The Dogon still live their own special life and do not pay much attention to the trends of modern civilization. Even their calendar is different, a week in it consists of only five days, and every fifth day is a market day, one might say, a holiday. On this day, everyone gets out their best outfits, men allow themselves to drink beer, women discuss family and household problems with their friends, joyful children try local delicacies and run around adults.
Every year in April, Des Masques celebrates a whole 5-day week of the Dogon. The main purpose of this holiday is to remind the Dogon of the Sigi holiday, because it is celebrated only once every 50 years. Let us recall that fifty years is equal to the period of revolution of Sirius B around Sirius A. Des Masks is celebrated in the same way as Sigi. It looks like a kind of carnival, although during this colorful action the whole history of the Dogon origin is demonstrated in images. The main attribute of the holiday is all kinds of special masks. They are made of wood, decorated with bizarre ornaments and special tall figures-headrests. In the festival, 80 different sacred masks are used. They are kept in special shrines guarded by olubaru priests.
The Dogon call themselves the Children of the Pale Fox; in their opinion, that was the name of their star progenitor. The Pale Fox, or Yurugu, is the protagonist of a number of myths. There is a Dogon drawing, which depicts how "the Fox descends in the ark from the star Po".
Judging by the myths of the Dogons, after the Fox, the Ark of Nommo descended to the Earth, this creature was a half-human, half-snake with flexible, jointless limbs and a forked tongue. The ancestors of humans arrived on Earth on the Nommo's ark.
Griaule's notes indicate that Nommo's ark was in two parts and was divided into 60 compartments. The scientist writes:
“In these compartments, Nommo placed all animals and plants that were to reproduce on Earth. And besides, there were "four pairs of twins, that is, eight Ancestors" in the ark. They looked like amphibians - half-humans - half-snakes with flexible limbs without joints, red eyes and a forked tongue.
Then Nommo's ark began to descend to Earth on the "copper chain" However, the landing was not very successful, since "the ark slipped in the mud" and the hole he made on the surface of the Earth was filled with water, due to which Lake Debb was formed, which is still on earth dogon.
The foot of Nommo, who set foot on Earth when he left the ark, left a trace of a copper sandal. After him, the creatures in the ark left only the first two compartments out of 60. After that, the ark was lifted back into heaven with the same "copper chain". Why the crew did not empty all the compartments is unknown. And what was in them - too. It is only obvious that Nommo flew from Sirius with the aim of settling the Earth, and it was in Africa."
It is curious that in the legends of the numerous African Yoruba people, it is said that when the world was created, the god Olorun dropped a chain from the sky, it was along this chain that Oduduva, the ancestor of the Yoruba people, who founded the city of Ife, descended to earth. As you can see, the chain from the sky appears in the myths of both the Dogon and the Yoruba people. Is it just a coincidence or not? By the way, the Bambara, another ethnic group living in Mali, also believes that life on Earth was brought from Sirius. Or maybe the ancestors of all Africans came from Sirius?
When will Sirius C be opened?
Of course, many have tried to explain the unique astronomical knowledge of the Dogon without attracting aliens who have arrived from distant Sirius. According to the most ridiculous version, all the information about the incredible knowledge of this tribe was a prank by Marcel Griaule. However, this scientist had an impeccable reputation, was guided only by a descriptive principle, and he hardly had such a broad knowledge of the Sirius system.
Perhaps, the main version is that the Dogon learned astronomical knowledge from one of the missionaries who came to “educate” this tribe in the 1920s. So, a certain missionary, noticing that Sirius runs like a “red thread” in Dogon mythology, decided to establish contact with them to tell them the latest scientific data about this star. At that time, a lot was written about Sirius B as the smallest and heaviest star. This is how astronomical data, incredible for them, turned out to be in the myths of the Dogons.
However, critics of this version reacted with irony to the possibility that a missionary could give the Dogon "lectures" on astronomy. And why then did he tell them only four moons of Jupiter, although at that time it was already known about nine? But the spiral shape of our galaxy was still unknown then! How did the Dogon know about her? In general, the version of the amateur missionary astronomy does not look very convincing.
Criticizing the version of the extraterrestrial origin of knowledge, German astronomer Dieter Hermann ironically says: "… Interstellar travelers, flying past Jupiter, could not even count to five." This he points to the fact that Jupiter has already found 16 satellites, and the Dogon knew only four. However, the same scientist calls the whole situation with the phenomenon of Dogon knowledge "a hopeless case". So far there is no way to unequivocally prove any of the versions. Now, if we manage to find Sirius C, it will be irrefutable proof that the Dogon received their knowledge from aliens.
Recent paleontological studies confirm this myth: indeed, the first people appeared on the Black Continent. The murals in the temples of the Dogon have also been preserved: the trajectory of interstellar flight is a curved line that wraps around the constellation Sirius and the Earth.
Historians and archaeologists unanimously argue that all the facts indicate that the tribe settled on the Bandiagara plateau, which is now also called the Dogon Country, at the very beginning of the 13th century. There is a cave that goes deep into the mountain, in which there are wall paintings created more than 700 years ago.
The entrance to the cave is guarded by the revered saint. He doesn't do anything else, but only protects the entrance. The entire tribe takes care of this person, feeds him, but no one has the right to touch him or come close to the entrance even during the transfer of food. When he dies, another saint takes his place. So what secrets does he guard?
The cave contains amazing drawings and grains of valuable information. For example, a drawing linking one direct system Sirius and our Sun. In general, there would be nothing unusual if the image pointed only to the brightest star in the sky - Sirius A.
But it should be borne in mind that the Dogon tribe lives in that region of Africa where the star Sirius disappears for a long time below the horizon and is out of sight for several months. Bright ruby red, it appears on the morning of July 23, exactly above the horizon, almost directly to the east, and rises about sixty seconds before the Sun.
So Sirius can only be seen for a moment, and then he disappears again. This is called the Sirius Sunrise. This is the rarest moment when Sirius, the Sun and the Earth find themselves in a straight line in space. But this was known to the ancient Egyptians, who deliberately made through holes in the thickness of the pyramids so that the bloody rising of the star would illuminate the altar.
Maybe these myths explain the mystery of the origin of life on our planet?
Perhaps the tribe could have obtained information about the structure of the universe from the ancient Egyptian priests. But the ancient Egyptians could not know anything about the explosion of Sirius B in the 2nd century AD - their civilization died much earlier. And among the Dogons, this explosion is one of the central points of mythology. The idea of the existence in the Universe of superdense matter, "white dwarfs", generally refers to the most modern ideas.
But that's not all. The presence in this star system of the third small star Sirius C - Emme Ya, about which the Dogon kept repeating - was established by scientists only in 1970. The tribe also knew about all the other planets of our solar system, including Neptune, Pluto and Uranus, as well as information about 226 more star systems, including spiral star systems that were discovered by astronomers later.
They knew exactly how these planets look when approaching them from space, which also became known to scientists only recently. And naturally, they knew that the Earth revolves around its axis and around the Sun, and makes a complete revolution in 365 days, and in their calendar they divided this cycle into 12 months. They knew about the Moon, that it was waterless and dead.
The Dogons also knew about red and white blood cells, and they possessed all the information about human physiology that we received only recently.
So how did the Dogon know about all these stars and their features? When the elders of the tribe are asked who provided their ancestors with such amazing information, they answer that it was Nommo, who at one time arrived on the "ark" just from … the Sirius system.
And all this is captured in cave drawings. But it is known for sure that they were not made by the Dogon. They came here only three centuries ago, and the drawings are 700 years old. But it turns out that where the tribe lived before that, there is a cave like this, from which you can see individual stars in the Sirius system. In addition, there are some "physical evidence" in this cave.
However, despite the persistent persuasion of scientists, the aborigines have not yet discovered its location. Either there are some super-powerful astronomical instruments created by the civilization of Sirius, or the "gods" left something there for safekeeping in anticipation of the next visit. One can only guess about this.
According to a variant of the genealogical myth, the Dogon once lived in a certain Land of Mande and are descendants of the legendary Lebe, who, in turn, descended from the Nommo ancestors. He gave birth to two sons. From the eldest of them came the Dogon tribe, and the younger son became the founder of the Aru tribe.
When Lebe died, the Dogons lowered his corpse into the ground, but before leaving the Country, the Mande decided to take the remains with them. But when they opened the grave, they found that Lebe had risen - there was a living snake. The Dogons, taking with them some earth from the grave, set off underground, led by a snake, and ended up in Mali.
Having become interested in the Dogon, the scientists found out that, in addition to Sirius, they have knowledge in the field of molecular biology, nuclear physics and other sciences, but, naturally, they cannot take advantage of anything. The Dogon seem to be a huge accumulation of knowledge, though not known; for what purpose it is intended.
But to preserve this information for many centuries without the presence of writing, without losing anything, to be able to sensibly explain each drawing - is this not evidence of the phenomenal abilities of the Dogon?
And once a sorcerer drew for scientists directly on the sand a map of the starry sky, in which the star Sirius occupied the central place. This is the kind of memory you need to have, so that, taking someone else's star as a reference point, you don't confuse anything!
Yes, the amount of information stored by the Dogon can amaze not only a common man in the street, but also scientists. For example, they know the planets Jupiter and Saturn, each of which is designated for them by a certain symbol. For Jupiter, this is a circle, next to which are four smaller circles (the four largest moons), and for Saturn, two concentric circles (they know about the existence of a ring around Saturn). The legends of the tribe are not limited to the knowledge of the two largest planets of the solar system. They also contain the most modern information and concepts about the structure of the universe.
Here are some fragments of the Dogon legends, written down from their words: "The Earth revolves around itself and, in addition, goes through a large world circle, like a spinning top that walks in a circle … The Sun revolves around its axis, as if driven by a spiral spring" … And this is said by primitive people who not only could not observe the movement of the Sun, but never saw the spiral spring in their eyes.
How do the "carriers of information" themselves explain the emergence of such knowledge? To the questions of the scientists, the priests showed another series of drawings that depict a flying saucer. This image is very similar to the shape we are already used to - a saucer descending from the sky and landing on three supports.
The next picture is the creatures inside the ship. Further, it is drawn how they make a large hole in the ground, fill it with water, get out of the ship into the water and approach the water's edge. True, they are not like any "green men".
The elders of the tribe talk about creatures resembling dolphins, that when they landed, they made a large depression in the ground, filled it with water and began to swim. Coming ashore, they spoke to the Dogon and told them that they had flown from the heavenly earth Po Tolo (Sirius B) and transmitted all the knowledge.
The messengers of heaven were unusually tall and "fish by nature": they breathed in water and therefore were constantly in transparent helmets filled with liquid. The Dogon called the newcomers "nommo", which in the language of the natives means "to drink water." The people of the tribe called the day of their appearance "the day of the fish", and the gods themselves were considered amphibious creatures.
It turns out that similar descriptions can be found among the Uros Indians living near Lake Titicaca (Peru). Legends tell of the same dolphin-like creatures who came from the stars and very quickly established close relationships with people who lived here even before the Incas. It was this connection with the "people of heaven", according to legend, that led to the founding of the Inca empire.
In addition, in the Mediterranean alone, as many as twelve cultures tell a similar story. But the astronomically "advanced" mythology of the Dogon is the clearest proof of the paleovisite of aliens. The Dogon claimed that according to their calculations, Nommo should have returned in 2003.
Perhaps the natives lost count, or the "amphibians" never arrived or flew away, but at one time they lived on the ground, and the "plates" served them like helicopters. There are many such “ors” you can dream up and even draw a parallel with our dolphins, but all this is still unsubstantiated.
But the fact that the Dogon tribe once stood at a higher stage of development is not groundless, if only because the natives gave historians and anthropologists a lot of interesting things. For example, tools of labor that have not been encountered before in any other isolated wild tribe of the planet, all kinds of figurines made of stone, bone and wood. Later it turned out that many of these items are at least 4,000 years old!
And Robert Temple, who has devoted a whole book to the Dogon, concludes his research with the words: “I was able to prove that the information possessed by the natives of the Dogon tribe is of very ancient origin - it is more than 5 thousand years old and was possessed by the ancient Egyptians in the pre-dynastic period, that is, up to 3200 years BC.