[PW] Dogon timepiece

[Michele Jack]

Hi Ivan. The object seems to be called a soleil. There is more info on them
if you look on google france. Here's one

entry:

 

http://perso.orange.fr/africart/pages/sod21.htm

 

The text says its commemorative, rather than an actual timekeeping piece.

There is more text on this page:

 

http://perso.orange.fr/africart/pages/pend115.htm

 

 

and this gallery has a couple in the collection:

 

http://www.hamillgallery.com/DOGON/DogonCastMetalwork/DogonCastMetalwork.htm
l

 

As for its use as a timepiece, this article is interesting. It says that the
Dogon seemed to use a astronimic calendar based on Venus,

which  involves intervals of 19 years, and drawings of rayed circles. I
haven't had nearly enough coffee to understand it properly.

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~pcstef/venus_dogon.html

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Michele

 

PS I must be starting to look like the geekiest person in the universe. I
like astronomy and had read about the dogon before,

so I had some idea of where to look. Really, I do get out and have friends
and my socks match (most of the time.)