upvote
Not observed and yet depicted in symbolism by different cultures dating back to Babylon. Quite the mystery indeed... I'm sure you have an explanation for how the Dogon tribe knew more about the Sirius star system than we did until relatively recently as well.

It's quite egotistical and foolish to assume we're more advanced and know more than our ancient ancestors, or that what is written in our history books is objective truth.

In fact, even scholars have suggested that Babylonians could and did observe at least one of Saturn's rings - https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_que...

reply
> I'm sure you have an explanation for how the Dogon tribe knew more about the Sirius star system than we did until relatively recently as well.

I have a hypothesis, which incorporates the fact that the Dogon were not reported to have such knowledge until the 1930s, well after the discovery of Sirius B.

> depicted in symbolism by different cultures dating back to Babylon

A bit of searching is coming up short, beyond a claim about shackles on the ankles of a Roman statue of Saturn (the god) symbolizing the rings; I find this less convincing than the idea that they symbolize shackles (the ones with which he was bound in Tartaros).

reply