Sirius, Dogon, Fish-People in 2 parts, pt 1

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

  HOW A 'PRIMITIVE' AFRICAN TRIBE
 COULD MAKE MAJOR ASTRONOMICAL
  DISCOVERIES WITHOUT ACCESS TO A
  SINGLE TELESCOPE HAS NEVER BEEN
 EXPLAINED. DR KARL SHUKER SHEDS
   NEW LIGHT ON THE FARSIGHTED
    ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DOGON
             PEOPLE 

                                

     THE DOGON ARE A RECLUSIVE
     TRIBE OF cave and hillside-dwelling farming
     people inhabiting a sparse, rocky plateau in
     southeastern Mali, West Africa. Isolated
     topographically and culturally from the
     outside world for countless centuries, they
     may well appear on first sight to be
     exceedingly unlikely receptacles of highly
     advanced astronomical knowledge ­ which
     only goes to show just how easily we can be
     deceived by outward appearances. 

     The first Western scientists to visit and study
     the Dogon people were French
     anthropologists Drs Marcel Griaule and
     Germaine Dieterlen, who initially made
     contact with them in 1931, and continued to
     research them for the next three decades,
     culminating in a detailed study conducted between 1946-1950. During their
     work, these anthropologists documented the traditional mythology and sacred
     beliefs of the Dogon, which included an extraordinary body of ancient lore
     regarding Sirius ­ the brilliant, far-distant Dog Star. 



 Power of Po 


     According to the Dogon priests, Sirius is orbited by a tiny secret star
that they
     refer to as 'po', which traces an elliptical path around Sirius taking
50 years to
     complete. Moreover, the tribe claims that po is composed of a mysterious,
     super-dense metal called sagala ­ which, they declare, is heavier than
all the iron
     on Earth. Depictions of Sirius and its minuscule companion po occur on
     numerous Dogon artifacts, including a statue examined by Dieterlen that
is at
     least 400 years old. Even so, these beliefs could be dismissed as
folklore ­ were
     it not for the startling fact that modern science has since shown them
to be
     entirely accurate! 

     Sirius does indeed possess an orbiting partner, officially termed
Sirius B, but it is
     so small that it cannot be seen by the naked eye. Consequently, it remained
     unknown to Western science until 1862, when American astronomer Alvan
     Clark discerned it as a faint pinpoint of light while gazing at Sirius
through a very
     powerful telescope. Later studies showed that Sirius B pursued an
elliptical
     orbit around Sirius, lasting 50 years, and was 100,000 times dimmer
than the
     bigger star. Indeed, it was only photographed for the first time as
recently as
     1970. So how could the 'primitive' Dogon, bereft of optical
instruments, even
     know of the existence of this invisible star, let alone have accurate
knowledge
     regarding the nature of its orbit? 

     Even more astounding, however, is the Dogon's longstanding claim that
Sirius B
     is unusually heavy. Not until 1926 did Western science discover that
this tiny
     star is a white dwarf ­ a category of star characterised by very great
density. In
     the case of Sirius B, astronomers have estimated that a single cubic
metre of its
     matter weighs about 20,000 tonnes. Once again, therefore, the Dogon's
ancient
     lore has been thoroughly vindicated, but how did they acquire such highly
     advanced astronomical data? They also allege that when Sirius B's orbit
takes it
     close to Sirius, Sirius becomes brighter than normal, and that Sirius B
takes a
     year to rotate upon its own axis. These latter claims extend beyond modern
     science's current knowledge of the Sirius star system, but in view of the
     accuracy of their other statements, we should perhaps not be overly
surprised if
     these too are ultimately verified. 

 


 Seeing Stars 


     Those Dogon revelations regarding Sirius B would certainly be sufficient in
     themselves to engage the interest of most astronomers, but what makes them
     even more fascinating is that they are not the only such revelations on
record.
     Griaule and Dieterlen also learnt that the Dogon believe in the
existence of a
     second tiny star orbiting Sirius. Referring to this second star as
'emme ya' (sun
     of women), they state that it orbits Sirius at right angles to Sirius
B, and follows
     a near-circular orbit rather than a more typical elliptical one. They
also claim
     that it is larger but four times lighter than Sirius B. 

     To date, however, conventional astronomy has uncovered no evidence for the
     existence of such a star ­ or has it? Several different astronomers
during the
     1920s reported seeing through telescopes a second tiny star orbiting
Sirius,
     which was duly dubbed Sirius C, but all attempts by astronomers to spy this
     evanescent entity since then have failed miserably. Is it possible,
however, that
     these brief glimpses were something much more important than just an
     astronomical mirage? 

     Taking into account a quite recent scientific discovery, it is indeed
conceivable
     that they were of an elusive star corresponding to the Dogon's emme ya.
If such
     a star exists and really is four times lighter than Sirius B, this
suggests that it
     belongs to the category of stars known as red dwarfs ­ which is in turn of
     particular interest, because red dwarfs periodically flare up very
dramatically for
     a time before subsiding again. If a red dwarf is orbiting Sirius and
just so
     happened to flare up briefly during the 1920s, this could explain the
otherwise
     anomalous but real-life scenario in which a cluster of sightings of a
star were
     independently made during that period but could not be repeated at any time
     since then. Yet even if this explanation is true, it does not address the
     oft-reiterated question of how the Dogon could have obtained such
     sophisticated astronomical knowledge. After all, science did not even
discover
     the flaring ability of red dwarfs until as recently as the 1970s ­
several decades
     after the Dogon people had first spoken to Griaule and Dieterlen
concerning the
     emme ya. 

     Even more remarkably, London University astronomers Drs Richard Donnison
     and Iwan P Williams published a detailed scientific paper in 1978 which
they
     speculated on the likely nature of the orbit that would be taken by
Sirius C, if it
     does indeed exist. Their conclusion was that its orbit's most likely
shape would
     be near-circular, which is precisely the shape described for emme ya by the
     Dogon. 

     Is this just a coincidence? Perhaps ­ but even if we choose to support
such an
     explanation for the entire corpus of Dogon lore regarding the Sirius
system, we
     cannot avoid conceding that there does seem to be an uncomfortably large
     number of inexplicable coincidences involved here.



 By Jupiter 


     Making matters even more controversial, this
     tribe's astronomical accuracy is not limited to the
     Sirius system. The Dogon priests also informed
     the two French anthropologists that Jupiter has
     four moons, that Saturn is encircled by a series
     of halo-like rings, that the planets orbit the sun
     (many simple mythologies claim the converse),
     that Earth is round (not flat, as often alleged in
     primitive folklore), and that it rotates upon its
     own axis. They even spoke of the galaxy of
     stars, i.e. the Milky Way, being spiral in shape. 

                                         





           







                                         






           

Eric Alan Weinstein
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk