Crop Circles

Silbury Hill Wiltshire

What are Crop Circles?

Crop circles are patterns that appear in fields. The pattern is created when certain areas of the crops are tamped down, but others are left intact. The edge is so clean that it looks like it was created with a machine. Even though the stalks are bent, they are not damaged. Most of the time, the crop continues to grow as normal.

Sometimes, the patterns are simple circles. In other instances, they are elaborate designs consisting of several interconnecting geometric shapes.

Farmers have reported finding strange circles in their fields for centuries. The earliest mention of a crop circle dates back to the 1500s. A 17th-century English woodcut shows a devilish creature making a crop circle. People who lived in the area called the creature the “mowing devil.”

Wayland Smithy Oxfordshire

Mentions of crop circles were sporadic until the 20th century, when circles began appearing in the 1960s and ’70s in England and the United States. But the phenomenon didn’t gain attention until 1980, when a farmer in Wiltshire County, England, discovered three circles, each about 60 feet (18 meters) across, in his oat crops. UFO researchers and media descended on the farm, and the world first began to learn about crop circles.

By the 1990s, crop circles had become something of a tourist attraction. In 1990 alone, more than 500 circles emerged in Europe. Within the next few years, there were thousands. Visitors came from around the world to see them. Some farmers even charged admission to their mysterious attractions.

Crop Circle Designs

Crop circles are not just circles,they can come in many different shapes. The most basic (and the most common) crop circle is the single circle. Circles may also come in sets of two (doublets), three (triplets) or four (quadruplets). Circles also may be enclosed in a thin outer ring.

The stalks inside a crop circle are typically bent into what is known as a swirl pattern, and the circles may spin clockwise or counterclockwise. In patterns with several circles, one circle may spin clockwise and another counterclockwise. Even a single circle may contain two “layers” of stalks, each spinning in a different direction.

Stanton St. Bernard Wilts

Crop circles can range in size from a few inches to a few hundred feet across. Most early crop circles were simple circular designs. But after 1990, the circles became more elaborate. More complex crop patterns, called pictograms, emerged. Crops can be made to look like just about anything smiling faces, flowers or even words. Crop circles are sometimes unique designs, but they can also be based on ancient motifs.

A formation at West Kennett in Wiltshire that looks like a Celtic symbol called the Triskell
Most circles are concentrated in the south of England, primarily in the counties of Hampshire and Wiltshire. Many of them have been found near Avebury and Stonehenge, two mystical sites containing large stone monuments.

But crop circles are not confined to England. They have been spotted in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, India and other parts of the world.

The “season” for crop circles runs from April to September, which coincides with the growing season. Circles tend to be created at night, hiding their creators (human or otherwise) from curious eyes.

Crop circles can be found in many different types of fields wheat, corn, oats, rice, oil-seed rape, barley, rye, tobacco even weeds. Most circles are found in low-lying areas close to steep hills, which may explain the wind theory of their creation