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the track of the Dropa since at least the died shortly afterwards. Though little early 1990s, ponders whether in recent is known about what happened next, years the Dropa's descendants might Hausdorf underlines that, in 1966, the have abandoned the mountains and Cultural Revolution began—and, as settled in the nearby lowlands—where with all such revolutions, much was they were "discovered" in 1995. lost forever. According to a report in Bild on 27 There is no verification of the 1962 January 1997, a Chinese ethnologist translation as such, though it should be claimed that the tribe's dwarfism was _ pointed out that there is no evidence in due to a high concentration of mercury the camp that argues it's all a hoax to in the soil, which had poisoned their suggest that the 1962 story and the drinking water for several generations. _ translation are invented. The claim did not go unchallenged, So far, the best the detractors have however. Dr Norbert Felgenhauer of been able to argue is that the story is the Munich Institute of Toxicology improbable (of course!) and that no one argued that this theory is nonsense. He has ever been able to decipher a stand- stated that such poisoning would result alone language, let alone an in immediate death, not stunted growth, extraterrestrial language. That is true. and introduced as evidence the case of But nowhere does the account say, and the Japanese town of Minamata, where no one has ever argued, that this was a in the 1960s many inhabitants died "unique language". from mercury poisoning. He also The only claim in this connection is noted that mercury was unable to _ that in 1937-38, when the discs were change human DNA and hence could discovered, their inscriptions could not not be held responsible for causing an be read immediately. Only in 1962 did hereditary trait—one that was clearly a team of specialists succeed in this apparent in this tribe. task. For all we know, the language in which the script was written had not Deciphering the Discs yet been deciphered in 1937, or no one So, we know that the existence of had paid sufficient attention to the stone discs is possible, if not likely, and that, if the 1933 report is correct, there were dwarfish people living in that region. The question, then, is this: is the decipherment of the script correct? If it is, then it does not necessarily prove that alien beings crash-landed in China, but at the very least it shows that these "genetically bizarre" beings believed they were descendants of aliens. According to the story, in 1962 a team of five scientists from the Peking Academy of Prehistory, led by Professor Tsum Um Nui, managed to decipher the inscriptions. Despite the claims made in the translation, the scientists eventually published their findings. Professor Um Nui then apparently was forced (or he decided) to abandon his position, after which he returned to his native Japan, where he Did Ernst Wegerer photograph C died shortly afterwards. Though little is known about what happened next, Hausdorf underlines that, in 1966, the Cultural Revolution began—and, as with all such revolutions, much was a inscriptions, or only in 1962 was someone able to identify the language in which the inscriptions were written. But note the year: 1962. This is the year that the earliest known reference to the story appeared—found by Dr Dendl in a German magazine—and it would suggest that something happened in 1962 that made a Chinese or Japanese source report on it. The translation of the discs might be precisely such an event: Professor Um Nui publishes his translation, the media pick it up and create a controversy; he decides to retire and return to Japan, while the media outside of China also report on it, ending up in the German magazine "The Vegetarian Universe". If the story was invented, it means that it was invented (or misreported) in 1962. The 1978 Sungods in Exile hoax is now clearly nothing more than a footnote in the story, largely responsible for popularising the entire saga but definitely not for creating or inventing it out of thin air. The 1962 article also discusses some technical details of the discs, underlining the potential factual nature an NEXUS ¢ 67 Did Ernst Wegerer photograph Dropa discs or Bi discs in 1974? OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2008 www.nexusmagazine.com