Blurs

The idea that the Dogon people of Mali possessed ancient “star maps” showing invisible stars is one of the most famous and controversial claims in anthropology. The story comes largely from French anthropologists Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, who reported that Dogon religious traditions included knowledge about the star system Sirius.  According to their publications, the Dogon described: - A companion star to Sirius (often linked to Sirius B) - A dense, heavy star orbiting Sirius - Various cosmological diagrams and symbolic representations of the heavens These reports led some writers to claim that the Dogon had astronomical knowledge that could not have been obtained without modern telescopes, and therefore must have come from an ancient lost civilisation or even extraterrestrials. However, most scholars today are skeptical of those conclusions: - No clear, ancient Dogon “star map” matching modern astronomical charts has been found - Later researchers often could not ver...