The Dogon are not a very large 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 the legends of the Dogon, their ancestors came in the X-XI centuries from the upper reaches of the Niger River, from the country of Manden, in the territory of Sudan. They displaced the earlier population of Bandiagara, adopting much of its culture and possibly adopting its language.

Ritual drawings of the Dogon.

The Dogon remained 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 by a significant part of the Dogon of Islam since the middle of the 19th century, and over time, the adoption of Christianity by a smaller part of the people, the Dogon retained ancient beliefs, including primitive knowledge of nature, combined with mysterious astronomical information that amazed modern scientists. The cosmogonic ideas of this people surprisingly resonate with the data of science of our time.

Of the European scientists, the French ethnographer Marcel Griol 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 a holiday celebrated by the Dogon every 50 years. For this holiday, the Dogon make special masks, carefully preserved by the next generations.

When in 1946 Griol returned to this tribe again, 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 down through generations by word of mouth. The story was accompanied by graphic drawings.

The mystery of the Dogon was first discussed in their research by Marcel Griol and Germaine Dieterlin, 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 about the triple character of Sirius first appeared in the cosmogony of the Dogon and the invisible stars known to them. The article only stated the facts, the researchers did not make any attempts to somehow explain the information received. Later, another book by scientists, Pale Fox, was published.

An attempt to comprehend the myths of the Dogon was made by Eric Guerrier in the book “An Essay on the Dogon Cosmogony: Nommo’s Ark” published in 1975 and Robert Temple in the book “The Sirius Mystery” 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 cosmogonic system of the Dogon and their astronomical views coincided with modern scientific data and hypotheses. A fact that has eluded ethnologists who are not quite knowledgeable in matters of astronomy.

The Dogon's excellent knowledge of the starry sky also attracted the attention of the scientist.
polar 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 really 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 the 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 on its axis, and the Earth around the Sun. According to the Dogon, Venus has a satellite. Actually it is not. But in 1976, astronomers Van Flandern and Harrington hypothesized that Mercury had been a moon of Venus in the past. According to the calculations of these scientists, the anomalies of the orbit of Mercury and some features of its structure indicate that approximately 400 thousand years ago it moved into 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. The planets are placed in elliptical orbits.
But the Dogon recognize the main role among the celestial bodies for Sirius. What 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.

Sirius is a triple star system.

Modern astronomy, however, defines Sirius as a binary system. This is a small, 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 such frequency that the Dogon hold their feast of masks. They, like astronomical science today, know that around Sirius-A, which the Dogons call the Sigu star, a small but very massive satellite rotates in an elongated orbit - the Po star, 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 from, one can only speculate. 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, this satellite has a more elongated orbit than Sirius-B, but their period of revolution is the same - 50 years. In addition, according to the Dogon, with the approach of Sirius-B to Sirius-A, the brightness of the glow of the latter increases, which is also 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 put together could not lift even a small piece of it. So, according to modern astronomy, the white dwarf Sirius-B consists of a substance of fantastic density, one cubic centimeter of it would weigh about a ton on Earth.

Dogon identify Sirius-B with the "po grain" - the "empty shell", which was formed after the "spread of things throughout the Universe." This is the main object of the universe, giving rise to the "spiral worlds" of the Universe - galaxies.

According to modern astronomers, white dwarfs appear as a result of powerful explosions of supernovae, which were previously red giants. One of the Dogon myths tells of just such an event - a flash and the gradual extinction of a star in the Sirius system. It should be noted that nothing of the kind is noted in any other written sources of ancient civilizations.

Focusing on the 50-year cycle, the Dogon celebrate the Sigi holidays associated with the Sirius-A star - Siri-Tolo. But this date is celebrated not with a half-century interval, but every 60 years, while the holiday lasts for 7 years. This is a celebration of the renewal of the world. During Shiga, a huge “kanaga” is made - a wooden mask of a bird. Masks at the end of the holiday are not destroyed, but stored in a special place. This made it possible for scholars, in particular Griol, to count the number of masks and determine that the Sigi celebrations began around 1300 AD.

Image of our Galaxy by the Dogon tribes.

As can be seen from the diagram, it shows four arms and two jet streams emanating from the nuclear disk, and also indicates the location of our solar system. I wonder where the wild tribes get such knowledge from?

The planetary system in which our Earth is located is approximately in the middle. All planetary systems are divided into three worlds: lower, middle and upper. Our Galaxy belongs to the middle worlds.

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The country of the mysterious Dogon is the bend of the Niger River, the heart of the West African Sahel. This is where the Sahara and the savannah zone converge. The Dogon live in Mali and Burkina Faso. No other country belongs to the category of "tourist" - they lack a developed infrastructure, there are practically no good hotels outside the capitals, there are few roads. So when visiting the Bandiagara plateau, where the Dogon live, one must count on a hiking or semi-camping way of life. There are no direct flights either to the capital of Mali, Bamako, or to the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou from Moscow. Flight through Paris with Air France, and then - according to circumstances. Before traveling, it is necessary to take care of vaccinations, since the countries of West Africa are unfavorable in terms of epidemic and other diseases associated with food and drink.

Where muddy waters Brownish cliffs of ferruginous sandstones envelop Niger in a wide arc, and behind the dried-up plateau of Bandiagara live the Dogons. "Grand Larus", a comprehensive French encyclopedia, devotes only a few lines to this people: "The Dogon have retained their specific ancient culture." Then a few words about Dogon masks follow. But is there a tribe or nation in Africa that did not have them? And although experts consider Dogon woodwork a masterpiece of African art, the most interesting thing about this tribe is its spiritual culture. His amazingly slender myths. His - let this expression allow us - "theory of the universe."

There are three hundred thousand Dogon. Not the smallest and not the largest African people, little known outside a narrow circle of specialists. Once, a thousand years before our days, they lived in the upper reaches of the Niger, in the Mande region, the very center of the ancient Mandingo empire. Then their dwellings dotted the slopes of the Kurula mountains. The Dogon, according to their legends, came to this mountainous region from the Dyago region, from where Niger begins its winding path to the ocean. Migration after migration, mixing with other tribes - this is the whole early history of the Dogon in brief. In the middle of the tenth century, a wave of Islam reached Mande - the homeland of the Dogon of that time. Its onslaught was not so strong, as if it had lost its strength in the wilderness of the Sahara, and people refused to accept the new religion. One of the Dogon tribes, the Aru, went down the Niger to look for a new homeland. Gradually, all relatives moved to the area of ​​the Bandiagara plateau, displacing from there by the end of the 13th century the former inhabitants - the Tellem tribe. It was then, in the era of resettlement, that the division of the Dogon into four tribes was born: Dyon, Aru, and it was Dogon. Since each of them reached Bandiagara in his own way, then he settled separately from the others, in his own area. Now everything has changed: often representatives of different tribes live in the same village, but the former isolation remains. However, communication is often hindered by a language barrier: the spoken language of the Dogon, "Dogoso", is divided into many dialects, sometimes strikingly different from one another. Only the ritual "sigiso" remains common - archaic and now understandable only to the initiated - the language of healers and sorcerers, the language of the priests of the ancient religion, the language of the "pale fox".

The Pale Fox, a small, light-brown animal that the Dogon consider their progenitor, is found in abundance in their mountains. The "Pale Fox" at one time knew how to speak the language "Sigiso" and told the Dogon their myths.

By the will of historical fate, the Dogon, like most Sudanese peoples, at the end of the 19th century found themselves under French rule. At the same time, they were “lucky” to some extent: the colonialists did not really complain about their hard-to-reach arid land. Maybe that's why Bandiagara became an ethnographic reserve.

The road to these places was laid at the beginning of the century by the lieutenant of the colonial troops, Louis Desplatne. The culture of the "savages" did not interest him, but, making a list of them, he noted the Dogon. Marcel Griol must be considered the discoverer of this culture for Europeans. He was in his early thirties when, as part of the Trans-Sudan Expedition, he ended up in Bandiagara. By that time, African sculpture was already well known in Europe: ritual and cult figurines made of bronze, ivory, and ebony. The young scientist was attracted by the other side of the spiritual life of Africans. Perhaps the first of the Europeans, he took up the study of ritual masks. He carefully tried to find out the semantic meaning of color, decor, ornament - every line, every protrusion on the mask. He made friends with many experts in ancient customs: Ogotemmeli, Onyonlu, Akundyo Dolo, with priests - Manda from Orosongo and Nommo from Nanduli, and many other Dogon. “Our relationship was truly cordial,” Germaine Dieterlen, Griol’s faithful companion, would write many years later. Expeditions went one after another. Trying to get to know the life of the Dogon as fully as possible, Griol came to them both in the rainy season and in the heat, when it became difficult even for his own inhabitants in the country scorched by the merciless sun. And what can we say about aliens! Desplatgne wrote in a report in his heart: "I have not seen a country so poorly adapted for a person as the land of the Dogon."

The Second World War interrupted field research, and when, after a long break, Griol returned to his friends, they met him with honor and decided to dedicate their most secret secret - the myth of the creation of the world. This decision high priests and the patriarchs of the clans were performed by representatives of the tribe for more than a month. Thirty-three days of preparation went on.

The Dogon do not have a written language. The myth is learned by heart and in this form is passed on to descendants. True, there are thousands of auxiliary signs. But these are only mnemonic means illustrating the main ideas of the myth. Every day, after many hours of teaching the mysterious signs of the myth, the Dogon teacher came to the council of elders and reported on the successes of the white students. On the thirty-fourth day, Griol finally heard the “bright word” - the essence of the Dogon myth. During his lifetime, Griol managed to publish only one single short message about the Dogon concept of the universe. In 1956, he died during another expedition to the country of his research.

The inhabitants of the Sanga region, where Griol worked, gave him the highest honor that no European had ever deserved: the most important, most solemn ceremony funeral rite - the removal of mourning, or "daman", which in the sacred language means "great prohibition". When a person dies, many prohibitions are imposed on his close relatives: you can’t eat many things, you can’t do certain jobs. The duration of the ban depends on the position that the deceased occupied in the tribe during his lifetime. The fact is that the elders of all clans of the tribe are invited to the “removal of mourning”. Each of them comes to the wake, accompanied by a large retinue. The hosts do not spare millet beer and food for the guests. Often, the entire crop of the family field is spent on refreshments. The more noble the deceased was, the more guests, the more beer needed for the "daman", the longer they mourn ...

The French ethnographer was commemorated by the entire tribe. Two moons before the start of the ceremony, the young men went into the savannah to collect wood and herbs, and then work began to boil in the villages: they made masks and bracelets, weaved grass skirts, dyed wigs.

Toward evening, wearing angular home-made mourning clothes, girded with white sashes, the initiates began a slow, endless dance on the outskirts of the village. To the rhythmic hooting of drums, a chain of dancers wriggling like a snake went into the rocks. There, where a huge block of stone is installed on a bare site - "Ammaginu" - the House of God. Here, in front of the altar, the sacred dance continued all night, which few are allowed to see - only those who are accepted into the male brotherhood of the tribe. The Dogon escorted the soul of the scientist to Amma, whose highest secret they revealed to a stranger, and besides, a European.

By morning the dancers had returned to the village. The melancholy dances resumed in the dusty square. Numerous guests were already seated on mats. The feast lasted until evening. In the slanting rays of the sunset sun, the kids brought gifts to the leader of the dancers: jugs of millet beer, a dish of rice, a bunch of dried fish, some salt. AT last time a line of dancers set off along the village, pouring beer and grain on the ground. All men and women rushed after. Each person held a clay shard in their hands. The procession headed for the southern outskirts of the village, because the spirits of the dead live somewhere far south of the country of the Dogon. The drums thudded desperately. They lined up in a row, each threw his shard as far as possible and took to his heels without looking back ... The soul of the deceased scientist moved to the house of the Dogon god. A pot of millet broth and a jug of beer stood in front of the temple all night - let the human soul celebrate its resettlement ...

Nine years have passed. In Paris, under the editorship of Germaine Dieterlen, the first part of the legends collected by French ethnographers was published - “The Pale Fox”, a cosmogonic myth of the Dogon. The book was carefully commented by Griol and his student. But outside the narrow circle of specialists, it did not arouse interest. However, the work was not intended for the general public.

However, ten years later another book appeared. It was released by Eric Guerrier, an astronomer from Marseilles, a passionate lover of archeology and ethnography. Watching the first steps of a man on the lunar surface, Guerrier remembered that he had once read something similar. Only where, in what fantasy novel? The memory worked and led to the unexpected: "Pale Fox"! The first lunar landing in the history of mankind was vividly reminiscent of the description in the Dogon myth of the arrival of the "Nommo's ark", and the footprints of the astronauts evoked the footprint of Nommo's copper sandal.

Guerrier re-read the myth, sought out Griol's earlier work, The Sudanese System of Sirius. The astronomer was also struck by the information contained in these works. They were common to the ethnographer writing down the myth, and did not arouse excessive interest in him, but astronomers, apparently, do not often look into the works of the humanities. The cosmogonic systems of the adogons surprisingly coincided with the latest theories and hypotheses! Griol and Dieterlen tried to convey the primary material as accurately as possible, as objectively as possible. They were not at all interested in a simple question: where did the Dogon get such knowledge from? And Guerrier asked him first.

He met with Germaine Dieterlen. Very soon, Guerrier became convinced that the venerable lady, an ethnographer, had the most approximate idea of ​​​​space flights. The astronomer breathed a sigh of relief. The most important reproach that skeptics could address to Griol and Dieterlen fell away: they supposedly put into the mouth of the Dogon what they themselves knew. Guerrier decided to translate the myth into the language of our days, to use modern scientific concepts.

Here it is worth making a small digression. As already mentioned, Dogon myths are transmitted orally, with the help of a whole arsenal of mnemonic signs, each of which is associated with images, metaphors, comparisons. Often a word in myth has a slightly different meaning than in everyday language. Not a single word, not a single letter can be changed in the story, because this can break the whole, distort the meaning. Griol and Dieterlen recorded primarily the plot of the myth. Then they gave explanations of the Oigons themselves to what was told. Guerrier's commentary is an attempt to translate the Dogon myth into the language of modern science, to compare it with modern hypotheses of the structure of the Universe.

“In the beginning there was Amma, the god in the form of a round egg, which rested on nothing, - this is how the Dogon myth begins. - It consisted of four oval parts merged with each other. Other than that, there was nothing." The name of God - Amma - in modern language means "to hold tight", "to hug tightly", "to hold in one place". And Amma held, squeezed the four main elements: water (“di”), air (“onyo”), fire (“yau”) and earth (“minne”). Amma had the shape of a small millet grain "po". And “po” among the Dogon is the main element of the world.

The main task of the supreme being in any mythology is to create the world. And Amma in each of its four parts causes an explosion, "which is the cause of existence." That is why he gets his main epithet "spinning whirlwind." Further it is explained that this vortex is spinning in a spiral. Such an image can be attributed both to a small atom with an electron cloud revolving around the nucleus, and to a giant star system - a galaxy: after all, most of the known galaxies belong to the class of spiral ones.

(No matter how you feel about Eric Guerrier's comment, you cannot get rid of the idea that a small African tribe worshiped in the form of Amma the eternal flow of energy ...)

Amma's creative process continued in a rather original way. He began to create signs that "give the whole world color, shape, substance." Signs come from within things. We call such signs chemical elements. The entire set of signs is called by the Dogon "invisible Amma." First of all, two "guide signs" and eight "main" ones were created. "Guiding signs" belong to Amma and only him.

Since we are talking about chemical elements, it is not difficult to assume that two elements that play a special role in the structure of the cosmos, hydrogen and helium, can be determined by such “guide signs”. Then the "main signs" can be identified with the groups of the periodic system of elements. True, such a comparison is very risky, because elsewhere in the myth the signs are divided into 22 families of “royal things”, and then their total number mentioned in the myth is more than twice the number of chemical elements known to us. Thus, analogies and comparisons here look very doubtful. But they don't happen by accident.

The Dogon know the starry sky well. The star of the Hyena corresponds to Procyon, the star of Leo to beta Aries, there are stars of the Acacia tree, Rice, Sorghum and many others. The "eyes of the world" are called the North Star and the Southern Cross. There is amazing information in Dogon astronomy. So, they call one of the four large satellites of Jupiter, the ones that Galileo introduced the Europeans to, the “Star of the Ball Tree”. True, with the help of a telescope, a dozen satellites were discovered at the elder brother of the Earth, but the Dogon do not have telescopes to this day ... However, the idea of ​​​​acquainting the ancestors of this people with optical instruments suggests the name "Double Eye of the World", given to the alpha of the Southern Cross. In any telescope, you can see that this star is double. The Dogon symbol of Saturn - two concentric circles - recalls the famous rings of this planet, also inaccessible to our vision. In the Sigi-so language, there is a special term "to-logonose", or "turning star". This is the name of the satellites of any celestial body. All this information commanding respect to Dogon astronomy pale next to their "theory" "sigi-tolo". So they call the most beautiful of the heavenly stars, the well-known Sirius.

The light we see is only a fragment of a star system. It is formed main star, or Sirius A, invisible with a simple eye the white dwarf Sirius B, the Dogon call it “po-tolo” (and “po”, as we know, is considered the smallest particle of energy, its grain), and another invisible star “emme-i-tolo” with the satellite planet “nyan -tolo. Regarding the last two stars and the planet, the Dogon say that they are so close to Sirius A that they are not always visible. Although Sirius is one of the closest stars to Earth - only 8.5 light years away, its satellite Sirius B was discovered only in January 1862 by Clark, and the theoretical orbit was calculated only ten years before that. As for Sirius C, its existence still causes heated debate among astronomers.

But here's what the Dogon say: "The po-tolo star revolves around the sigi-tolo." One revolution lasts 50 years... "Po-tolo" regulates the movement of "sigi-tolo", which moves along an irregular curve." It was the twisted movements of Sirius A that led scientists to the discovery of an inconspicuous neighbor. The period of circulation of Sirius B is 50 Earth years ... By the way, close neighbors of the Dogon, such as Bambara, also know about the existence of a smaller brother of the star. And far to the south of the continent, the Hottentots call Sirius "the star nearby."

“Po-tolo” makes exactly the same revolution around Sirius as “po” around its embryo in the womb of Amma ... When “po-tolo” is near a star, it enhances its brilliance; when "tolo"

moves away, it begins to blink so that the observer seems to see many stars. An impressive picture, considering that Sirius B is not visible to the naked eye! In the symbolic Dogon drawing, the Sirius system "po-tolo" is shown as a circle with a dot in the center. But, according to Africanists, in such images, not a single dot can appear by chance. Guerrier believes that this drawing is a symbol of a white dwarf. “White dwarfs, as it were, “ripen up” inside stars - red giants - and “appear into the world” after the separation of the outer layers of giant stars,” says Soviet astronomer I. Shklovsky.

"Po-tolo" is the heaviest star ... It is so heavy that all people put together could not lift a small piece of it. Now compare this with the data of modern astronomy: the mass of Sirius B is 0.98 times the mass of the Sun, and the diameter of this star is only two and a half times the diameter of the Earth. This gives a fantastic density: one cubic centimeter weighs about 50 tons! So the Dogon were not mistaken qualitatively. The myth also explains the high density of matter: “Po-tolo” consists of three main elements: “onyo” (air), “di” (water) and “yau” (fire). "Minne" (earth) is replaced by another element - "sagala", "which sparkles brighter than iron." Modern astrophysics claims that in the process of evolution of stars there is a gradual compaction and heating of the core. When its temperature reaches one hundred million degrees, the reaction of fusion of three helium nuclei into one carbon begins. This helium flash does not last long, but leads to major changes. Further evolution can go in different ways. If the mass of the star is large enough (approximately two or three Suns), the helium body throws off the shell. After a catastrophic contraction, the core turns into either a "black hole", or a white dwarf, or a neutron star. If the material is ejected quickly, a supernova breaks out: the star's brightness increases ten or even a hundred million times, and then slowly fades over decades. And so it turns out that the Dogon myth repeatedly mentions the “po-tolo” explosion: when people were on Earth for only a year, the star suddenly shone, and then gradually, over two hundred and forty years, its brightness decreased. And further: the contents of the "po-tolo" erupted in the form of grains "po". In the system of mnemonic signs of the Dogon there is a special pattern: a circle, inside of which strokes directed towards the center are placed - this is how the decrease in the size of a star is symbolically depicted. What is this, an accident? But then there are too many of them in myths African tribe.

When French ethnographers asked the old people where the Dogon got such extraordinary information from, they answered that they observe all space objects from the Sirius group from the cave. Where is the cave itself? This is the strictest secret. The priests flatly refused to open it to the whites. Griol only managed to hear another mention that "evidence" had been collected in large quantities in the cave. The elders did not explain this term ...

Why are the Dogon so great place in their legends do they dedicate themselves to distant worlds and, it would seem, not at all connected with earthly life? It turns out that there is a connection, and the most direct one: “In the beginning, the place of the “po-tolo” star was where the Sun is now. The sun was there too. But the star “po-tolo” moved away from the Earth, but the Sun remained.” One of the parts of The Pale Fox describes how people were transported from the planet, the sun of which was before its explosion "po-tolo". The Dogon metaphor defines this journey as a "successful marriage". In the drawing-symbol depicting this "marriage", Sirius is larger than the Sun! The radius of Sirius A is indeed 1.7 times greater than the sun.

"Po" is the original image of matter... Amma's creative will was enclosed in "po", say the Dogon. It is the beginning of all things, because it is the smallest of all. If we remember that Amma acts as a god-energy, then one can be amazed at the accuracy of the formulation: the smallest particle is the beginning of matter. “All the things that Amma created originate in a small seed “po”. Starting from the smallest, Amma creates all things, adding the same elements. All things Amma begins to create as small as "po"; then he adds new portions of small "by" to the created things. As Amma connects the grains "by", the thing becomes more and more." Hardly educated person can more easily explain to the illiterate the structure of matter.

“When life develops, it develops in a whirlwind that repeats the first creation of Amma. Life evolved at the very moment when the grains "by" were combined.

The complex, archaic, figurative language of the myth sometimes transfers information, seemingly unbelievable for the primitive people, through allegory.

“The word “po” comes from the same root as the word “pok”, which means “to twist into a spiral”. The "Po" coiled into itself keeps the "word" until the moment when Amma orders to release this "word" in order to transmit it to all creations. “Po” ​​can turn into a terrible wind, but you can’t talk about it. ” Guerrier believes that this is about the possibility of the transition of matter into energy - no more, no less. Is this interpretation too bold? Maybe. But this is what the Dogons say - literally - and this phrase is the most secret of their myths.

And here is another snippet. Everyone knows what an important role in the processes of organic synthesis is played by enzymes, that is, substances that accelerate chemical reactions. Enzymes were discovered at the end of the last century. And the Dogon from generation to generation teach the lines of their myth: “The life contained in the grain thanks to the“ word ”is like the fermentation of beer in calabash ...”

The Pale Fox describes two "space odysseys" (as Guerrier calls them). First, it tells about the journey to Earth of a creature named Ogo, then about the arrival of the “ship” Nommo and the first people on Earth.

Wow, it reminds us a lot of the Satan we know. Approximate god Amma, he rebelled against his patron and mastered part of his knowledge. Ogo went on space flight three times. (This part of the myth is told in a very confused way, and ethnographers believe that it reflected real events: the three stages of the Dogon migration to Bandiagara.)

Ogo Amma turned the first "ark" into the Earth. This was followed by a second journey - on a small "ship", which moved, driven by the "wind" contained in the grains "by". This important information allows far-reaching interpretations... If desired, of course.

Ogo flew from the star "sigitolo" - Sirius. At the same time, it is described in detail and in detail how he led his “ship” so that its movement coincided with the movement of the Earth (“entered into a successful marriage with the Earth,” as the Dogon say). All this is so reminiscent of the arguments of the modern theory of space flights that Guerrier concludes that the Dogon myth conveys theoretical and practical knowledge as detailed as possible. In order, probably, he believes, that this information be transmitted in detail to distant descendants.

Nommo's task turned out to be quite different. He was instructed to populate the Earth by Amma himself. For this purpose, a huge two-deck "ship" with a round bottom was built. Nommo's "ship" was divided into sixty compartments containing "all earthly creatures and ways of being": the world, the sky, the earth, the village, the meeting house, the women's house, livestock, trees and birds, the cultivated field, cowrie shells, fire and the word , dance and work, travel, death, funeral ... But the current Dogon know the contents of only the first twenty-two compartments. “The rest will come to people’s minds later and change the world,” they say so themselves…

The “ship” was hung on a copper chain, and then, at Amma’s signal, it launched into a hole made in the sky: it set off from that part of space where “tolo” gave birth to life, which now had to be transferred to Earth. Approaching our planet, the "ship" circled the sky for eight "periods", occupying it like a giant rainbow - from horizon to horizon. It circled from east to west, deviating now to the north, then to the south. It rotated around its own axis and described a "double helix" during its descent. Said rotation was assisted by a "whirling whirlwind" that burst out of the ship through openings that had "the shape of this wind."

At the moment of landing, the “ship” slid through the mud, and the hole formed after it hit the ground filled with water and became Lake Debo. On its shores, on Gurao Hill, there is still a giant dolmen depicting the “Nommo ship”, and a little further away, among the menhirs, personifying Sirius and the Sun, another stone, much smaller, symbolically depicts the Earth.

“Coming out of the ship, Nommo put his left foot on the ground first. This meant that he takes the Earth into his possession. The mark left by Nommo's foot resembles the mark of a copper sandal.

After Nommo, the rest of its inhabitants left the "ship" in turn. When the "ship" was empty, Amma pulled the chain that supported it into the sky, and the sky was closed. Earthly life has begun.

Nommo plunged into the waters of Lake Debo, from where his caring eye watches people until the appointed hour of his rebirth comes - the "day of the word." It is necessary to observe the life of people - after all, for this, he arrived earlier than Nommo, on Earth Ogo, in order to interfere with them. It needs an eye and an eye...

New time ruthlessly discarded myths as a boring toy. It turns out that not everything in the legends of antiquity was fiction. Think of Schliemann, who dug out Troy in strict accordance with the myth; about the traditions of the Polynesians, accurately reproducing the history of the people. And now the people of our day are diligently shoveling the legends covered with a haze of time, looking for a rational grain in them, a memory of prehistoric times. Perhaps there is such a grain in the Dogon myth. Of course, it is naive to believe that the visit of a handful of space wanderers gave impetus to the development of earthly civilization. In general, the very possibility of such a visit is debatable. The study of myths for the "cosmic grain" opens up scope for bold guesses, original hypotheses. Unfortunately, there is a lot of room here for fraud and charlatanism ... Apparently, it is not yet the time to unambiguously evaluate the Dogon legends. There may be another interpretation, different from Guerrier's. Well! After all, one can turn to the detailed and reliable records of Griol and Dieterlen. Or maybe other researchers will be able to "talk" the Dogon keepers of secrets even more? What will be revealed then? Whether the "space version" of Guerrier will be justified, or will it turn out to be a myth, only already in the 20th century, one thing is clear: in any case, our knowledge of the past of mankind will be enriched.

And a small African animal, a pale fox, will help in understanding the truth ...

For some Dogon groups, mutual understanding between which is difficult or impossible, and Bamana. French, the state language of Mali, is spoken by a few.

The total number is about 800 thousand people (2007, estimate). Mostly Muslims, traditional beliefs are preserved in a number of areas, about 10% are Christians (Catholics and Protestants).

Dogon languages

Ethno-linguistic division

According to the linguistic criterion, the Dogon are divided into several large and many small groups. Their language features(sometimes very significant) are available in almost every Dogon village. In the table below, they are sorted by language and population. A small group of Bangan, located in the range of the northern Dogon, is separated from the latter due to the fact that, according to some modern ideas, their language is not included in the Dogon family and is considered as an isolate.

Story

Bandiagara ledge

Dogon raise themselves to ruling groups Ancient Mali. According to ethnogenetic legends, their ancestors, oppressed by the Fulbe, came in the 12th century from the upper reaches of the Niger - from the Manden country, displacing the local population (telem or kurumba) and partially assimilating their culture and, obviously, adopting their languages. Cave sanctuaries and burial complexes in the rocky spurs of the eastern and southern Bandiagara remained from the bodies (among the inventory - ceramics, arrowheads and spears, bronze and iron bracelets, wooden sculpture, fragments of fabric, weaving, etc.). Tradition does not report direct contacts between the Dogon and the body. Connection with the Manding peoples confirmed social connections tribal groups, the proximity of art, dances, rituals, etc. In the 16th century, the Dogon were part of the early state formation varying degrees engagement for various groups) - in Masina. The contacts of the Dogon with the Islamized Fulani, which began at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, led to the capture by the latter of Bandiagara to mid-nineteenth century.

traditional culture

Wooden Dogon statue, possibly an ancestor figure, 17th-18th century

The traditional culture is typical of the peoples of the Sudanese subregion of West Africa. Its study was monopolized in the middle of the 20th century by representatives of the school of M. Griol, which led to ignoring the previously established alternative views (L. Desplatne and others). Culturally, the Dogon of the plateau and foothills approaching the Niger Valley (central, western and northern Dogon) and the Dogon of the chain of mountain ledges and the Seno Plain to the southeast of them (southern and eastern Dogon) differ culturally. The isolated position of the country of the Dogon contributed to the conservation of archaic elements of culture or secondary archaization. The main occupations are manual slash-and-burn agriculture, in the mountains - terraced, in some places - irrigation (sorghum, millet-eleusis, beans; onions are the main subject of exchange and trade). Cattle on an exchange basis of relations are pastured by the Fulbe. The Bozo Dogon are associated with a relationship of comic kinship.

The male society of Ava masks is connected with the cult of ancestors, at initiation into which (9-12 years) circumcision is performed. Female circumcision is also practiced. Processions and dances with masks are held in connection with funerals, the beginning of agricultural work, annual rituals in honor of Amma and Lebe, 60-year cult cycles, etc.

Partially preserved are the traditions of rock art (images of people and animals, geometric figures). From the 2nd half of the 19th century, under the influence of tukulers, Islam spread, with late XIX- early XX century - Christianity. Dogon, educated and living in cities, have a high status, occupy an influential position in politics and culture.

In modern culture

Literature

• Beaudoin G. Les Dogon du Mali. P., 1997.
• Calame-Griaule G. Ethnologie et langage: la parôle chez les Dogon. P., 1965
• Desplagnes L. Le Plateau central nigerien. P., 1907
• Griaule M. Dieu d'eau. Entretiens avec Ogotemmêli. P., 1948
• Griaule M. Masques dogons. P., 1938
• Griaule M., Dieterlen G. The Dogon of the French Sudan. 1948
• Guerrier E. La cosmogonie des Dogon. L'arche du Nommo. P., 1975
• Hochstetler, J. Lee, J. A. Durieux and E. I. K. Durieux-Boon. 2004. Sociolinguistic Survey of the Dogon language area. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2004-004: 187 p.
• Laude J. African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers. N.Y., 1973
• Palau Marti M. Les Dogons. P., 1957
• Paulme D. Organization sociale des Dogons. P., 1940
• Wanono N. & Renaudea, M. Les Dogon. P., 1996

Links

• Those who came to the Bandiagara plateau. Article from the collection "On land and at sea", 1978
• Dogon and Sirius The Skeptic's Dictionary.
• "Excerpt from The Sirius Mystery" by James Oberg.

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

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

The tribe is very small - about two hundred or 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, the 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 show interest in them is quite justified. But not only ethnographers show interest. The Dogon 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 Germain Dieterlin have been studying the life, customs and beliefs of this people, writing down 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 - sigi co. Somehow, apparently, the aborigines liked Griol, and by decision of the council of elders he was admitted to initiation into the rank of priest. And the priest, of course, open secret knowledge.

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

There are a few things to list 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 middle of the 19th century. In 1924, the astronomer Hubble proved that they are made up of stars. The rotation of our galaxy was proven in 1927, and its spiral shape in 1950. All these are discoveries of paramount importance, which became possible only by bringing astronomical equipment to a certain level of perfection. Previously, these discoveries - with antediluvian telescopes and spyglasses - were impossible to make.

What did we bring 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 has long been said in their archaic mythology! The 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 circulation of Sirius B around Sirius. It is impossible to detect this tiny satellite of Sirius (or Sirius A), determine its color, calculate the period of revolution and density, without having astronomical instruments. From Earth, Sirius B is visible at an angle of 7.6 seconds, plus it is visually very close to the main component of the system - Sirius A, and since Sirius A is the brightest star in the sky, Sirius B glows ten thousand times against its background 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 cannot, by its very nature, distinguish anything is equal to twelve arcseconds, but there are very few people on Earth who have such visual acuity. But even twelve arcseconds is not enough to distinguish Sirius B. No wonder the satellite of Sirius was first discovered mathematically - on the basis of deviations in the motion of Sirius A, and only then discovered visually. In addition, even when you saw this tiny star through a telescope near Sirius, you 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, not a single civilization had in those distant times, where the knowledge of the Dogon comes from.

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 Po tolo and Emme ya tolo. The Po star - say the Dogon - is white as a grain of Po (a kind of millet). In the sanctuaries of the Dogon, this star is symbolized by a pure white stone. According to the views of the Dogon, all things in the world consist of four basic elements - earth, water, air and fire. In the satellite Po tolo, the element "earth" is replaced by "metal" in all its forms, and especially in the form of "sagal". It is a metal, say the Dogon, "more brilliant than iron, and so heavy that even if all the people were brought together, they could not lift even a small piece of it." Therefore, Po's star is "the smallest and heaviest of all stars."

It can be concluded that Sirius A (among Europeans) and Sigi tolo (among the Dogon) are one and the same. Sirius B and Po tolo are also one and the same. What is Emme ya tolo? How is the situation with the second satellite of Sirius? And it doesn't work! Such is unknown to modern astronomy. But its existence is assumed! Astronomers have long been saying that there should be a second satellite - again due to deviations in the motion of Sirius A. But they still cannot find it - neither mathematically nor practically. And the Dogon, then, know about its existence?

The idea of ​​the Dogon 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 not impossible. Emme ya tolo, the Dogon assure, 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 also not alone! Two planets revolve around it - Ara tolo and Yu tolo. I must say that the Dogon perfectly distinguish between stars (tolo), planets (tolo tanase, which literally means "moving stars") and satellites (tolo gonose - "circling stars"). So much for primitive culture with millet and masks!

At the same time - what a surprise! - The Dogon do not represent the solar system as well as the system of Sirius. It has only five planets: Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and, apparently, Saturn. The Dogon know that the Earth rotates on 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 - Yalu ulo tolo - "permanent halo" - has rings. (As we modern people know, the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, and they themselves, cannot be seen with the naked eye either.) These planets, along with Venus (Tolo Yazu) and Mars (Yapunu tolo), also revolve around the Sun.

But the fact that there are outer planets and Mercury is unknown to the Dogons. Unless, of course, Mercury is identified with Yazu Danala tolo - "the star that accompanies Venus."

But the Dogons know that the stars visible in the sky are far from the Earth, close to which is only the Sun star. But the main star is not her, the main one is Sirius, which is also called the "navel of the world", although Sirius occupies the main place in the group of stars, which includes only the constellation of Orion and several nearby (visually in the sky) stars. The latter include: the Pleiades, Enegerin Tolo - the “Star of the Shepherd of the Goats” (gamma of the Small Dog), 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, according to the Dogon, consists of other, more distant luminaries, in lesser degree interfering in human life.

The outer system - the "spiral star world" - is nothing but 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 axis - the Southern Cross lies almost in the same plane with the axis of the Galaxy and is almost (divergence - 5-7 degrees) perpendicular to it.

Such "spiral stellar worlds" (galaxies - to put it European language), there are infinitely many in the Universe, and the Universe itself is "infinite, but measurable." It is inhabited by living beings. On "other lands", according to the Dogon, "winged, horned, tailed, crawling people" live.

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

The Dogon tell scientists about the process of creating the Universe as follows: “At the beginning of all things was Amma - God, who did not rest on anything. Amma was a ball, an egg, and the egg was closed. Nothing existed besides him... The world inside Amma was still without time and without space. Time and space merged into one. But there came a moment when Amma opened his eyes. At the same time, his thought came out of the spiral, which, circling in his womb, marked the future expansion 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 the matter was compressed to an unimaginable density and occupied a negligible 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 with the help of 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, "Pale Fox", symbolizes drought, disorder and is the opposite of moisture, light, order in the face of his brother Nommo. Among the drawings of the Dogon there is an image called "The Fox descends in the ark from the star Po." In another drawing, the Sun and Sirius (with the diameter of Sirius exceeding the diameter of the Sun), connected by a curve that twists around each of the luminaries, like a space flight route.

Not only Yurugu descended to Earth in an ark, a little later another ark transferred Nommo to our planet. Together with him, the ancestors of people arrived on Earth.

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 of the Small Dog). When the ark landed, the earth raged around, lightning struck, an unthinkable hurricane began. After the apparatus touched the earth's surface, everything calmed down and a ladder with ten steps appeared from it, the door opened, from where the gods appeared ...

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

Orthodox scholars, of course, deny the myths of the Dogon and claim that the Dogon heard about Sirius B in local French missionary schools even before Griol began to write down their beliefs in 1931, they simply included this information in their "ancient" rituals. good version. The ancient images of the Dogon fit especially well into it. But let's say the images don't exist, let's believe it's just the missionaries doing a good job. Very educated missionaries caught by the Dogon! With a simply fantastic set of astronomical knowledge. And, apparently, they did not find any other topics, except how to discuss with the wild natives the novelties of modern astronomy. And in general, those priests were extremely advanced - they believed that the Earth was not flat, but round, and even flies in space. So it seems among the Jesuit fathers a sort of Galileo, who undertook to enlighten the primitive African community in terms of 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 art. Yes, they would rather believe in the existence of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto!

But this, as they say, they laughed, and that's enough. Seriously, where did the Dogon get their fantastic knowledge from?

Most scientists who do not profess the theory of alien 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 that?) The version, in principle, is not bad, however, where did the Egyptians, in turn, borrow their knowledge from? They didn't have telescopes either. But the Egyptians were still incomparably more civilized, so let's say. The explanation could pass if not for one “but”: the Dogon in 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 know anything about the explosion of Sirius B - their civilization died much earlier than the 2nd century. The ideas about the existence of superdense matter in the Universe, “white dwarfs”, generally belong to the most modern knowledge, and the ancient Egyptians were certainly not aware of such complex cosmic phenomena.

Perhaps the knowledge of the Dogon originates from medieval Arab culture? Canadian Ovenden put forward a hypothesis about contact with the Muslim University in Timbuktu, where the knowledge of the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks was kept. But this is also a false trail - ancient scientists did not have such deep knowledge in 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 prank on the part of Marcel Griol. 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 Dogon to assert to everyone later that they possess precisely this knowledge? Fourthly, how did Griol 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 immediately. And astronomers paid attention to the work of Griol only many years later. This would be unbearable for any joker.

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

The hypothesis that the archaic but astronomically advanced mythology of the Dogon is evidence of a paleo-visit of aliens was formulated by the American scientist Robert Temple in 1975. In 1978, Robert Temple published The Sirius Mystery. Since then, there has been controversy surrounding this hypothesis. Immediately there was a bunch of people who seized on this "delicious" version and came up with a bunch of their own, and about completely different peoples. But of all the plots associated with aliens, whose unprofessionalism is visible from a mile away, it is impossible to brush aside the mythology of the Dogon. 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. To list everything - a newspaper page is not enough. Let us only recall the Anunnaki, the gods of the ancient Sumerians who descended to Earth. Perhaps the aliens from Sirius or one of its satellites really 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 common version, the whole thing is in the disappeared mighty civilization of the Earth, which died as a result of a monstrous natural cataclysm (another version is a man-made disaster). The legend of Atlantis is a vivid confirmation of this.

So there is no reason to count on the close end of the dispute. The "white dwarf", spiral star systems and the Milky Way, the rotation of Sirius B around its axis - all this and now cannot be seen even in the most powerful telescope, they are the result of understanding what astronomers observe, and suggest high level culture.

So it turns out that there is no escape from the paleovisit hypothesis. But how do you not want orthodox science to believe in aliens! Well, they do not fit into their lives! Moreover, the aliens turn out to be some kind of half-educated! All the Dogon were told about, 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 up 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 probably know (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 the mythology of the natives attaches great importance to Sirius (why would that be, by the way?), Then, in order to establish contacts with the tribe, the missionary decided to enrich the ideas of the Dogon about their divine luminary. In the West, just in the 1920s, Sirius became the subject of numerous publications. Yes, 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 the Catholics already knew, if not sixteen moons of Jupiter (as we know today), then at least nine - just such a number of moons was known in the 20s. Why did they only talk about four?

So this version of missionaries-enlighteners does not add up either. But another one appeared: the knowledge of the Dogon was collected from the world one by one. Everyone who came to the tribe in one way or another was greedily tortured by the elders and priests about all the novelties of astronomy. Such is the painful craving for the starry sky in general and for Sirius in particular. Whole people, obsessed with a single mania.

Yes, it is easy to see that Dogon astronomy is characterized by a distinct chronological layering. The first layer: representations characteristic of archaic culture, when a person only knows about the planets visible to the naked eye: neither missionaries nor aliens are needed here. Hence there are only five planets in the solar system. (True, how can you calculate the orbits of the bright "stars" - Venus, Mars, if you consider them stars? There is little that shines in the sky? Why should it revolve around the Earth? And why does it rotate itself, and even move in space? This too visible to the naked eye primitive man?) The second layer - knowledge, for example, about the satellites of Jupiter - corresponds to the astronomical ideas of the era of Galileo. (I wonder who from Galileo's entourage reached Africa to enlighten the hungry Dogon knowledge?) 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 weren’t for what’s in parentheses and, again, not one “but”: the mythology of the Dogon looks very solid, ethnographers do not see “white threads” in the legends of the Dogon and the hasty fitting of new borrowings to old myths. Each astronomical fact among the Dogon is tied to certain rituals that can be traced through relics and artifacts at least until the 12th century!

The German scientist Dieter Herman calls the situation with the Dogon knowledge about space a “hopeless case”: it is impossible to unambiguously 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 utterly strained. New astronomical discoveries could resolve the dispute. If only a third star were discovered in Sirius! ..

P.S. From messages from one of the news sites: “In Central Africa, anthropologists have discovered a cemetery of creatures, alien aliens, outwardly similar to people and buried about five hundred years ago. About two hundred well-preserved bodies were found in the graves. An examination of the bodies showed that they were most likely representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization, because they did not have any signs of ancient people. In each " mass grave There were five bodies each. The growth 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 with the help of a biological radar, like a radar. bats. "Scientists are trying to figure out where they came from on Earth and why they died here," said Swiss anthropologist Dr. Hugo Children. This is not the first case of the discovery of obscure creatures and their remains, whose belonging to the human race is very doubtful. Hypotheses basically agree that these are either ancient genetic freaks or aliens.

The mysterious Dogon tribe lives in northwestern Africa.

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 surprising circumstance - the Dogon have long possessed accurate and extensive astronomical knowledge, completely unbelievable for a backward African tribe.
And even the fact that Sirius is a double star, the wild, almost primitive Dogon knew long before the European autonomists ...

The old sorcerer looked sadly at the strange white man and barely audible voice began his story:
"Amma created all things out of smallest particles"on".
All the things that Amma created originate in a small seed “po”. Starting from the smallest, Amma creates all things, adding the same elements. All things Amma begins to create as small as "po"; then he adds new portions of small "by" to the created things. As Amma connects the grains "by", the thing becomes more and more
After all things appeared, the great god created the first creature.
His head was like that of a snake with red eyes and a forked tongue, but this snake had flexible arms and they were called Nommo antagonally. And there were four of them: Nommo di, Nommo titiayin, O Nommo and Ogo.
Ogo did not wait until the Creator completes 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 earth. But the persistent Ogo built a new one and again took off from his native star Sigitolo. The wind hidden in the grains "by" urged him until he found himself on the ground.
In our world, he turned into a pale fox. Enraged, Amma sacrificed one of the Nommo antagonno and destroyed everything that Ogo had created, collecting everything that had been released into the “po”. The Creator decided to populate the empty land, and already Nommo spun a new ark on a huge copper chain, and then set off through a hole in the sky. There were earthly beings in 60 rooms, 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 Griol feverishly wrote down the old man. 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 space.
When Griol and his companions first entered the Dogon village, they saw white people locals fearfully hid in their homes and only the most daring looked out from behind the half-open doors. The rocky streets were carpeted with nettles. Everywhere rose towers of stone and straw, which turned out to be barns.
Several men met the travelers and led them to the "togunu" - the men's house. The "house" turned out to be a primitive shed of dried millet with a terribly low roof. This was done on purpose - if a heated argument starts and it comes to a fight, the debaters 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 denoted the ancestors of the Dogon. Near the "togunu" there is a house covered with carvings, with jewels 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 “hand-faced” people came to the village every day and had time to get bored with him…
The Dogon did not make secrets from their knowledge, and for 10 years Griol and his assistant eagerly recorded the stories of shamans and tribal elders. They slowly reported amazing things - about distant stars, aliens from outer space, about how the Dogon people lived for many centuries in anticipation of the contents of the remaining rooms of the Anagonno Nommo ship being revealed to them.
Lords of the Rock of the Dead
The Dogon came to these lands in the 16th century, displacing the Telem tribes.
Thelemes left behind a dark memory in the form of the mysterious Rock of the Dead. Europeans who heard stories about him at first thought that all this was an ordinary myth drawn by the excited consciousness of savages. However, after it turned out - the Rock of the Dead really exists.
American journalist David Robertson, without any enthusiasm, recalled his visit to this terrible place: “In the brownish-yellow twilight, I cautiously stepped on human bones that crunched under my feet. The overhead rock, 30 m high, is cut by a niche. Ten people could hardly squeeze into it, but in some incomprehensible way it hides three thousand skeletons in its dark depths. Among the heaps of bones here and there one can see faded dusty patches.
Today, the Dogon people number approximately 800 thousand people. They are extremely unsociable and prefer to live away from worldly fuss, cultivate the land, hiding their villages on the plateaus and in secret valleys.
At the same time, they do not favor not only strangers, but even fellow tribesmen. This is what led to a peculiar linguistic phenomenon. Despite their small number, the Dogon use ... 35 dialects!
Sanga is considered the central settlement, a kind of capital. In fact, this settlement does not differ from all the others in anything, except for its size. In it, just like in any other village, there are "toguns" and family houses built in the form of a human body. The living room of the “genie” represents the head, the side rooms are the arms, and the central hall is the “torso”. Another common building near the Dogon settlements are special houses where women spend "critical days".
The Dogon are born farmers. They cherish every piece of land and every plant - even the baobabs have their own names here. Hunting is out of the question here. The rare hunters of the tribe who leave the village at night in search of game are considered desperate daredevils and almost reckless lunatics.
With silent tenacity, this strange people struggles with outside influences. Even Muslim missionaries, who easily converted many neighboring peoples to Islam several centuries ago, were powerless before ancient religion Dogon.
The tribe still uses its own five-day week calendar. The market day stands apart - each village establishes it independently. Mostly women trade, but this holiday is universal - as a rule, according to its “results”, the whole village turns out to be drunk as a brat.
The Dogon live in closed communities ruled by a council of elders (ginna). Men dress in a loincloth and loose shirts, while women tie a skirt around their hips.
The relations between the tribe and its neighbors are interesting. For example, with the bozo they are connected by the so-called comic relationship. This African tradition comes from ancient times. Its essence is that when representatives of two peoples meet, they begin to jokingly conflict with each other, teasing and bombarding the opponent with barbs. It is assumed that in this way they "let off steam" and a serious conflict is simply impossible.
The most sacred place for the whole village is the burial cave. After the ritual dances over the body of the deceased, they put it on a wooden stretcher and carry it throughout the village. Then, on special ropes, the corpse is lifted onto the rocks and placed in a pre-prepared cave.
The most important holiday for the tribe is the day ... the revival of the world. The ceremony is held once every half a century! At the same time, the main attribute is a special bench on one leg - siji. She also protects the tribe from evil spirits.
Dogon without exception live below the poverty line. Due to chronic poverty, they even began to plunder the tombs of the Telems, which they used to be terribly afraid of, and sell the relics of the defeated people for next to nothing, pouring into these lands to European collectors.
In the village, you can often meet a man shackled in shackles. These are not criminals, but ... crazy - shackles are put on them so that the sick during the next seizure 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 that they were not able to save their children, committed suicide, and mothers threw their babies off a cliff so as not to see how they 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 an unceasing struggle with harsh nature. However, upon closer acquaintance with the tribe, inquisitive ethnographers found out absolutely amazing things ...
Barely out of the Stone Age, the Dogon were versed in the movement of celestial bodies and astronomy. They spoke 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...

First and most amazing. Since ancient times, the Dogon have known what Sirius B looks like - a satellite star of Sirius, completely invisible from Earth.
Moreover, they said that the substance of which it consists is very heavy, much heavier than the earth. According to the tribe, even a few people cannot lift one grain from the surface of a star. And now attention - according to the latest scientific data, this is true! The specific gravity of the substance of the satellite star is 1.5 million tons per cubic inch!
A wild tribe from ancient times distinguished planets from stars. Moreover, it is excellent for the five planets of the solar system: Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and, presumably, Saturn. From the most ancient Dogon myths, it is clearly indicated that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and the Moon around the Earth. Moreover, their knowledge about the satellite is extremely specific: it is “dry and dead”. The Dogon 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 Portion, Gamma small dog and many others. They were well aware that the Milky Way is a "stellar spiral".
In one of the caves of the tribe, the researchers found drawings, the meaning of which became clear only when the orbits of Sirius and its satellite star were calculated. It turned out that the rock art reflects the movements of Sirius B in orbit from 1912 to 1990!!!
No less interesting was the ancient “graffiti”, depicting the hitherto unknown aircraft landing on the ground and creatures emerging from it, partly similar either to snakes or fish ...

It is surprising that some of these facts became known to mankind 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 imagine a clear explanation of how all this knowledge was obtained by a primitive tribe ...

HISTORICAL REFERENCE

The Dogon assure everyone that their lineage should be traced back to the legendary rulers of Mali. The founder of this amazing West African empire was great commander and a statesman who lived in the first half of the 13th century, Sundiata Keita. Interestingly, as a child, he was a frail child and barely survived. But when he grew up, he recovered from all 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 as with bare hands uprooted the baobab tree and carried it home on his shoulders. His strength was so great that his bow could not be pulled, not a single warrior except him (I immediately recall the legends of the Greeks about Odysseus).
A separate place in the epic is occupied by his struggle with Sumaoro 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 the arrows on the fly, and the spears broke on his chest. Sumaoro could take the form of 62 animals, and if he had to run, he simply dissolved in the air.
But the future ruler of Mali went to the trick. He gave his sister as an enemy, and she found out that there was still a remedy against the invincible sorcerer. It is necessary to make an arrow with a tip from the spur of the patron saint of Sumaoro - a white rooster. So Sundiata regained the land of his ancestors.
Keita is also associated with the birth feudal relations in Mali. It was he who was the first to transfer part of the land for use to his soldiers, thus creating a semblance of European nobility.
The most famous ruler of Mali was Sundiat'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. He was not hindered even by the fact that he did not know Arabic, and therefore could not read the Koran.
As you know, the most important event in the life of every Muslim is the pilgrimage to Mecca - 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 was carrying 15 tons of gold as a gift to the rulers of the East.
This is how the visit of the king of Mali to Cairo is described: “This man poured out his generosity in a wave to all of 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 carried himself, what dignity, what modesty!
So this modest guy was so littered with 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.
Such a trip to Mecca played a big role in the development of Mali. Merchants poured into the country in droves. The first university on the African continent was 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 ruined the empire. Poverty reached the point that the unfortunate 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 neighbors - from Songhay and from Morocco.