The Dropa stones, otherwise known as the Dzopa stones, Dropas stones or Drop-ka stones, are claimed by some
ufologist
Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and f ...
s and
pseudoarchaeologists to be a series of at least 716 circular stone discs, that are supposedly 12,000 years old, on which tiny
hieroglyph
A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...
-like markings may be found.
Each disc is claimed to measure up to in diameter and carry two grooves, originating from a hole in their center, in the form of a double
spiral
In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point.
Helices
Two major definitions of "spiral" in the American Heritage Dictionary are:[Bayan Har Mountains
The Bayan Har Mountains, formerly known as the Bayen-káras or Bayan-Kara-Ula, are a mountain range in Qinghai Province, northwest China. The name is Mongolian for "Rich and Black". It can be viewed as one of the branches of the Kunlun Mountain ...]
, and that the ship contained the Dropa people who could not fix it and therefore had to adapt to Earth. Further, his research claims that the Dropa people were hunted down and killed by the local
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...
for a period.
[ Tsum Um Nui noted specifically that one glyph apparently said: "The Dropa came down from the clouds in their aircraft. Our men, women and children hid in the caves ten times before sunrise. When at last we understood the sign language of the Dropas, we realized that the newcomers had peaceful intentions".]
Tsum Um Nui is said to have published his findings in 1962 in a professional journal, and was subsequently ridiculed and met with disbelief. Shortly afterwards he is said to have gone to Japan in a self-imposed exile, where he died not long after he completed the manuscript of his work.[
]
Russian examination
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
researchers requested the discs for studying, and allegedly several were shipped to Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. Once there, it is said that they were scraped for loose particles and put through a chemical analysis which revealed that they contained large amounts of cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, pr ...
and other metallic substances. As recorded in the Soviet magazine ''Sputnik
Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
'', Dr. Vyacheslav Zaitsev describes an experiment where the discs were supposedly placed on a special turntable whereby they were shown to 'vibrate' or 'hum' in an unusual rhythm as though an electric charge was passing through them.[
]
Ernst Wegerer
Supposedly, Ernst Wegerer (Wegener) was an Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
who, in 1974, visited the Banpo Museum
The Banpo Museum () is a museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. The museum houses artifacts from the archaeological site of Banpo. The museum gives access to the excavated buildings, has a collection of artifacts from the site, and also has several re ...
in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, where he saw two of the Dropa stones.[ It is said that when he inquired about the discs the manager could tell him nothing, but permitted him to take one in his hand and photograph them up close. He claims that in his photos the hieroglyphs cannot be seen as they have been hidden by the flash from the camera and have also deteriorated. By 1994, the discs and the manager had disappeared from the museum.][
]
Publications
A reference to the Dropa and Dropa stones is found in the July 1962 edition of the German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
vegetarian magazine ''Das vegetarische Universum''.
They are mentioned in the 1978 book '' Sungods in Exile'' by David Agamon (real name David A. Gamon). This book is written as if it were a documentary of a 1947 expedition with the scientist Karyl Robin-Evans. It follows his supposed travels into the secluded region of the Bayan Har mountain range where he finds dwarfish people called the Dropa. According to his book, the Dropa population consisted of a few hundred members all of which were approximately tall. Robin-Evans allegedly lived among the Dropa for half a year and during that time he learned their language and history, and also impregnated one of the Dropa women. He was told that they had crashed there long ago and that their ancestor had come from a planet in the Sirius constellation. Gamon later revealed in the British publication ''Fortean Times
''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2 ...
'' that his book was his "favorite hoax" and a satire.
In Japan, they were mentioned in 1996 when a translated version of Hartwig Hausdorf and Peter Krassa's ''Satelliten der Götter'' ('Satellites of the Gods') was released.[
]
Controversies
It has been suggested that Tsum Um Nui is not a real Chinese name. There is no mention of him in China outside his connection to the Dropa stones. According to Dropa enthusiast Hartwig Hausdorf, Tsum Um Nui is a "former Japanese name, but adapted to Chinese language". Nor is there any mention in any records about Chi Pu Tei's expedition in 1938.
''Sungods in Exile'' with its account of Karyl Robin-Evans in all appearances gave credibility to Dropa stones until 1988 when David A. Gamon told ''Fortean Times'' magazine that the book was fiction and Karyl Robin-Evans' imaginary.
The stone discs were supposedly stored in various museums across China. However, none of these museums have any records or traces of Dropa stones ever being there.
According to the Gould-Parkinson system of transliteration, ''drop-ka'' is Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
for "solitude" or "inhabitant of pasture lands". It is said to be the name of a tribe of Tibetan nomadic herders on the eastern Tibetan plateau.[
With Wegerer's photos lacking concrete evidence of the hieroglyphs, they display similarity to ''bì'' discs. ''Bì'' are round jade discs with holes in their centers. When buried in the earth, the minerals change them to be multi-colored. ''Bì'' have been dated to 3000 BCE and were common in what is now ]Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
. Some ''bì'' are decorated with parallel grooves and other markings.
References
Notes
*{{Skeptoid , id=4403 , number=403 , title=Out of Place Artifacts , date= February 25, 2014
Ancient astronaut speculation
Pseudoarchaeology