Originally posted by IsaacKoi
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More fundamental is the issue of whether there is any evidence that the knowledge attributed to the Dogon had been held by them prior to its communication to Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen between 1931 and 1950. Some of the proponents of the "Sirius Mystery" claim there is such evidence. For example, in response to criticisms of his theory by Carl Sagan, Robert Temple has suggested that the Dogon have had the relevant knowledge for hundreds of years, referring "hundreds or thousands of objects, symbols, woven blankets, carved statues, etc., etc., which exist in those cultures relating to the 'Sirius Mystery'" and stated that he is baffled by "how these hundreds or thousands of object are meant to have been expertly fabricated fakes purporting to be centuries old, fooling all dating experts" (Temple, 1981).

However, few details of such "hundreds of thousands" of pieces of evidence have been supplied by Robert Temple or anyone else.

Obvious questions about the "hundreds or thousands" pieces of evidence mentioned by Robert Temple are:
(1) What specific objects are relied upon?
(2) How do those specific objects prove that the alleged knowledge of the Dogon is "centuries old"?

If such objects and symbols did indeed exist, then the alternative explanation put forward by sceptics (i.e. contamination with Western knowledge) would be completely undermined.

Temple has written a lengthy book on the "Sirius Mystery". He also substantially added to that book, after two decades of attacks by sceptics largely based upon the theory that the relevant knowledge is the result of recent contamination. So, why hasn't Temple answered the two basic questions posed above about the "hundreds or thousands" of objects and symbols?

The obvious inference is that he is unable to provide compelling answers to these questions.