The Dropas came down from the clouds in their aircraft. The men, women and children of the neighboring peoples (Ham) hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last they understood the sign language of the Dropas, they realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions…”.

Many artifacts that are supposedly alien make a brief appearance, capture our interests and then mysteriously disappear. Such is the case of the Dropa Stones, a number of unusual stone disks, found in a system of caves in the Baian-Kara-Ula mountains in China, near its border with Tibet.

The disks were discovered during an expedition mounted by Beijing University professor of archaeology Chi Pu Tei in 1937, in a cave system that seemed to have been artificially carved. Inside said caves, his team found several skeletons measuring a little over four feet and had exceptionally large skulls. According to his account, the cave walls were covered in symbols depicting the sun, the moon, the Earth and several other celestial bodies. They also featured small beings in what appeared to be spacesuits.

However, the most interesting find was represented by the 716 stone disks half-buried in the floor of each cave. Some of the oldest were dated at around 12,000 old. The disks measured about nine inches in diameter and a fine groove was etched into their surface, spiraling outwards from the center. At the time, the researchers likened them to phonograph records. Upon closer inspection, the grooves were found to be lines of hieroglyphic symbols.

The disks remained a complete mystery until Dr. Tsum Um Nui managed to break the code and decipher some of them. They told the story of how a spacecraft carrying the inhabitants of another world crashed into the mountains. Their vessel was damaged beyond repair and they were left stranded on Earth. Although the aliens had peaceful intentions, the locals hunted most of them down due to their unusual appearance. Interestingly enough, local legends told of strange, small yellow men with large heads that came down from the stars a long time ago.

The disks were reportedly examined by Soviet scientists in the late 1960’s and determined two important aspects. The disks contained traces of cobalt, nickel and iridium and when placed on a special turntable, they vibrated and emitted a strange hum.

The disks were last seen in 1974 in the Banpo Museum in Xian, China and were photographed by Austrian engineer Ernst Wegener. Unfortunately, they disappeared sometime in the 1980’s or 1990’s and were never seen again.

Perhaps modern analysis techniques could have shone light on these mysterious alien artifacts but sadly, it is no longer an option. Let’s hope they resurface sometime in the future.