Crop circles is a term for patterns in the form of rings, circles and other geometric shapes formed in the fields by lodged plants. These drawings can be small or so large that they can only be seen in their entirety from an airplane.
The first known mention of circles in England refers precisely to 1618 (The chronicles contain a mention of miraculously appeared circles in the grain fields), in Holland in 1503.
The earliest documented mention is considered to be an English pamphlet from 1678 called "Mowing-Devil" (devil-mower).
1680, England. Also crop circles, and also their appearance remained unsolved;
from the 16th to the 19th century, Japan. Circles appear in rice fields.
Plots of crushed wheat are mentioned in the legends of various peoples, for example, in Russian folk tales, Mongolian folk tales and many others with very similar storylines. Separate episodes of these tales P. Ershov combined into one story rich in adventures "The Little Humpbacked Horse", written by him in 1834. Although all these works do not mention clear geometric shapes, but only talk about crushed crops, they are often cited to confirm the antiquity of this phenomenon.
1972, England. A UFO appeared and hovered over the field, released a beam of colored rays towards the ground, a whistling noise was heard, and before the eyes of eyewitnesses the ears fell in a strict order, turning clockwise;
But especially a lot of such evidence began to appear at the end of the 20th century.
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The first scientific study was published in the 22nd issue of the journal Nature, July 29, 1880.
However, the phenomenon was not widespread until the end of the 20th century, and sharply gained fame in the early 90s. In 1990 alone, about 500 figures were discovered, and in subsequent years their number exceeded several thousand. Being just circles at first, the shapes have become more complex over time.
Modern "circles" are often very complex formations, for example, the figure discovered on August 14, 2001 in Wiltshire has a diameter of about 450 meters and consists of 409 circles. Today, several figures are registered per week, sometimes several per day.
To date, more than 5000 figures have been registered in 40 countries of the world. However, most of them are registered in the vicinity of Avebury, UK.
Geographically, the phenomenon occurs in almost all countries. The most frequent references are found in England, but they can also be found in Japan, Australia, America, South Africa, Spain, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Russia. In other countries, it is somewhat less common.
Figures on cereals - rye, wheat, etc., are considered a classical manifestation of the phenomenon. Many researchers are of the opinion that the appearance of figures on other underlying surfaces is impossible, but the following examples can be given:
- Italy, Brazil, Australia and other parts of the world: pictograms appear among the bushes;
- Afghanistan: a group of geologists in the mountains discovered over 30 pictogram circles in deep snow;
- Egypt, Red Sea: Charlotte Wüsthoff from a passenger plane discovered clear pictograms in the sand in the desert region of Egypt;
- Kharkiv: an imprint of a ring with a diameter of 20.7 meters was found on the ice of the frozen Mza River;
- Samara: two circles with a diameter of about 20 meters were found in a snow-covered field near Kurumoch airport. This observation was made from a plane taking off at low altitude. There was not a single trace of a person or technology in the nearest snow-covered area, and this completely excludes the artificial nature of the origin of the discovered circles.
Since signs of authenticity apply only to formations in a cereal field, and for other cases such signs have not yet been developed, this article will consider the phenomenon of "crop circles" in its classical manifestation, that is, on a cereal field as an underlying surface.
Until 1990, as a rule, only very simple - mainly circular - shapes were encountered. Since 1990, the complexity of the circles has increased - huge complexes of circles with all kinds of ramifications have appeared. They were given the name "pictograms". Since then, pictograms have become more and more complex, moving more and more away from simple geometric shapes.
There are many hypotheses for the occurrence of circles. They are described in detail in an article by Richard Taylor, devoted for the most part to the history of the study of circles and examining many theories from the 19th century to the present day. All these hypotheses can be conditionally divided into several categories:
Hoax
- In September 1991, British residents David Cherley and Douglas Bauer confessed to forming circles. According to them, the first pattern they made in 1978, inspired by photographs of paths left in the fields of agricultural machinery.
- The Crop Circle Maker Group, founded by John Landberg, has demonstrated that it is possible to make almost any crop circle, including analogues of those recognized as authentic by cereologists.
- Joe Nickel, Senior Fellow at the Allegedly Paranormal Research Committee, claims that the circles have all the hallmarks of counterfeiting: They are concentrated in South Britain, they become more complex over time (the skill of the creators grows), the creators hide and remain anonymous. The objections to this hypothesis are based, among other things, on the fact that careful studies of some of the figures show complex changes in the structure of plants that cannot be reproduced in the field. In addition, the complexity and large size of part of the formations is indicated, which does not correlate well with the short time interval (one night) required for their creation.
- The luminaries of agricultural science assure that if in the fall a "shock dose" of ammonium nitrate is applied in the winter field within the circle, then from such overfeeding with nitrogen the plants within the circle will grow faster and reach such growth that thin stems will fall from the slightest breath of breeze. You can lay them with a rope in a spiral (this is exactly the picture observed in crop circles). This was demonstrated by the journalists of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in one of the private farms in the Moscow region in 2001. However, it is not clear how with this method it is possible to create shapes with clear boundaries and several multidirectional background layers.
- Richard Taylor thinks that makers of field ornaments use microwave radiation to cut grass. The main tools of the "artists", apparently, are magnetrons torn out of microwave ovens and powered by powerful portable batteries. And GPS navigation helps to verify the steps. However, if you find the original article by Richard Taylor, which is referenced by pushing this theory in, it turns out that it is devoted more to the history of learning circles than to learning itself. At the end, there is a link to the research of the BLT Research Team, whose members were allegedly able to repeat the changes in the structure of plants using microwave radiation from magnetrons from ordinary microwaves. And scientists Haselhoff and Levengood even built a model describing such processes. However, all this remains a theory, it has not yet been possible to repeat in reality on the field. In addition, the use of radiation will not give clear edges of the formation, and this is one of the signs of truth. The author of the article does not even insist on a similar origin of circles, the article is purely overview, it just mentions the possibility of using modern technology (microwaves and GPS) by scammers when creating circles.
Natural causes
- One theory suggests that circles are created by small vortices that send strong currents of air to the ground, crushing plants. Such eddies are common in the hilly regions of the UK.
- Dr. Terence Meden of the Tornado and Storm Research Organization (TORRO, Wiltshire) believes that such vortices have an energy charge (plasma vortex theory). Dust particles caught in the swirling charged air can emit light, which explains the glowing lights reported by eyewitnesses. But at the same time, the question remains - how can air vortices create such complex pictograms?
- According to The Washington Post, recently Californian researcher Don Scott observed the appearance of mysterious circles in the rye fields in southern England. Among his equipment were a radiation detector, infrared vision devices, cameras and movie cameras. Don Scott proceeded from the well-known fact that the presence of radioactive isotopes was recorded on cereals lying in circles. Therefore, before installing his equipment, he determined with the help of a radiation detector areas of the rye field exceeding the usual radiation level. After two weeks of searching, he found such an anomaly, and the wait began. A few days later, at 1 hour 57 minutes in the morning, an automatic infrared camera turned on. In his night vision goggle, Scott watched the ears of rye begin to bend into a circle. Having enlarged the image, the researcher saw small creatures,scurrying between the ears. They were not aliens from distant space, not mystical creatures from ancient Celtic legends. The circle builders turned out to be ants, one of the insect species with a primitive social organization. What makes ants walk in circles? According to Scott, the direction of movement of ants determines the earth's magnetic field.
This theory does not agree with the history of the development of the phenomenon and does not explain the place where the circles appeared, although it is considered the most plausible, "because ants are everywhere." Also, it was not possible to find a source that would describe in detail this theory and its research.
Another mind
- One of the assumptions is that the pictograms in the margins are a trace of another mind. For example, traces from a UFO landing. Or, on the contrary - messages from other planets specially sent to earthlings. However, this theory lies in the same plane as the question of the existence of UFOs and other anomalous phenomena - scientific confirmation of the existence of another mind has not been received to this day, despite the fact that from a scientific point of view, its existence is very likely. Perhaps the reason for this is that scientific work on the search for extraterrestrial civilizations at the moment is concentrated only on a narrow area of the search for a radio signal of a certain frequency, similar to an artificial one.
