Dogon People -- Complete Timeline

Dogon People -- Complete Timeline

Date	Event	Category
c. 3200 BC	Dogon oral tradition holds that their astronomical lore -- including knowledge of the Sirius system -- dates to approximately this period; no archaeological corroboration	Oral tradition
c. 2nd millennium BC	Ancient Egyptian Sothic calendar in active use; Sirius (Sothis/Sopdet) identified as herald of the Nile flood and Egyptian New Year; Isis-Sirius identification established	Astronomical context
c. 290-270 BC	Berossus writes the Babyloniaca, containing the account of Oannes and the seven Apkallu fish-sages who taught civilisation; the primary Mesopotamian parallel to the Nommo tradition	Parallel tradition
c. 13th-15th centuries CE	Dogon migrate to the Bandiagara Escarpment, fleeing Islamic expansion across the Sahel; they displace or absorb the Tellem people	Dogon history
1844	Friedrich Bessel detects gravitational perturbations in Sirius A's proper motion, inferring the existence of an invisible companion star	Astronomical discovery
1862 (January 31)	Alvan Clark directly observes Sirius B for the first time while testing a new 18.5-inch telescope at Dearborn Observatory	Astronomical discovery
1893	French astronomers travel to West Africa to observe a total solar eclipse; proposed (not confirmed) as one possible route for Sirius B knowledge to reach West African populations	Contamination theory context
1903	Lieutenant Louis Desplagnes, French colonial army, makes first reported European contact with the Dogon	Dogon contact
1914	Walter Adams measures the spectrum of Sirius B; discovers it must be extraordinarily dense (a type-A spectrum for a very faint star implies enormous density)	Astronomical discovery
1925	Arthur Eddington calculates Sirius B's density from Adams's spectral data; white dwarf physics established	Astronomical discovery
1931	Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen begin fieldwork among the Dogon as part of the Mission Dakar-Djibouti; Griaule has studied astronomy at the Paris Observatory before departure	Fieldwork begins
1931-1946	Phase 1 of Griaule-Dieterlen fieldwork: masks, ceremonies, social organisation documented; the inner cosmological system is not yet revealed	Fieldwork phase 1
1938	Griaule publishes "Masques Dogons" -- first major ethnographic study of Dogon material culture	Publication
1946 (October)	The blind elder Ogotemmeli invites Griaule to his home; over 33 days reveals the deep cosmological system including Amma, the Nommo, and the creation myth	The crucial revelation
1946-1950	Four Dogon head priests reveal the specific details of the Sirius system: the orbital period of Po Tolo (~50 years), extreme density, elliptical orbit, invisibility	The Sirius material recorded
1948	Griaule publishes "Conversations with Ogotemmeli" -- the first public account of the inner Dogon cosmological system	Publication
1956 (February 23)	Marcel Griaule dies in Paris, age 57; Germaine Dieterlen continues the Dogon fieldwork and begins preparing "The Pale Fox"	Griaule's death
1965	Griaule and Dieterlen's posthumous "The Pale Fox" (Le Renard Pale) published; contains the complete Dogon cosmological system and the detailed Sirius sand drawings	Publication
1967-1973	The Sigui ceremony is filmed in its entirety by Jean Rouch and Germaine Dieterlen over seven years; approximately 15 hours of film produced	Documentary record
1970	Sirius B first photographed in detail by large telescopes; visual separation from Sirius A documented photographically	Astronomical milestone
1976	Robert Temple publishes "The Sirius Mystery: Was Earth Visited by Intelligent Beings from a Star in the System of Sirius?" (Century, London); becomes an international bestseller	Publication
1978	Ian Ridpath publishes "Investigating the Sirius Mystery" in the Skeptical Inquirer; systematic astronomical critique of Temple's claims	Skeptical response
1979	Carl Sagan addresses the Dogon mystery in "Broca's Brain"; proposes pre-Griaule European contact as the most likely source	Skeptical response
1989	UNESCO designates the Bandiagara Cliffs (Dogon country) as a World Heritage Site	Cultural recognition
1991	Walter van Beek publishes "Dogon Restudied" in Current Anthropology; finds no Sirius B knowledge outside Griaule's original informants; several informants attribute the knowledge directly to Griaule	Restudy published
1995	French astronomers Benest and Duvent publish a paper proposing Sirius C based on astrometric data	Sirius C hypothesis
1998	Robert Temple publishes expanded edition of "The Sirius Mystery" with 140 pages of new material; responds to van Beek's critique; claims 15-year CIA/KGB persecution campaign	Expanded edition
2005	Hubble Space Telescope obtains precise measurements of Sirius B; no third stellar companion detected at HST precision	Sirius C negative result
2010s	Van Beek continues Dogon fieldwork; further publications refine his analysis; the academic debate continues	Ongoing fieldwork
Present	The Dogon Sirius mystery remains unresolved in scholarly literature; no consensus explanation satisfies all parties; the Dogon continue to inhabit the Bandiagara Escarpment; tourism continues despite security concerns in Mali	Current status