Mystery awaits at Jinsha site

Some say they came from aliens.

The theory lingers in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, where claims of mass UFO sightings about 20 years ago are associated with the otherworldly masks the Sanxingdui culture forged there more than 3,000 years ago.

The masks' telescope-shaped eyes and Spock ears do endow them with sci-fi countenances, while the "beamed-down" notion has been inflated by a knowledge vacuum.