Typically running from May to August, the crop circle season is drawing to a close. This year’s earthly delights, or wholly unearthly depending on your standpoint, have thrown up some of the most detailed crop circles ever seen. With images by international croppie photographer Lucy Pringle, i-D Online presents the Top 10 Crop Circles of 2010.
Photography Lucy Pringle
Text: Sarah Raphael
Reported 9 May 2010 in Wiltshire, Stonehenge, this formation depicts two intertwined nautilus (marine creatures). Stonehenge is a hot spot for crop circles, which have appeared near the ley lines for years. From its pagan and druid origins, Stonehenge is one of the world’s most sacred places, renowned for its energy and spiritual significance.
Reported 16 May 2010, to the untrained eye this crop circle looks like a key hole. The trained eye however, translates it as an isosceles triangle formation. Crop circles were originally just circles, a simple shape filled with historical and mythological significance. In recent years however, the crop circle has become increasingly and bafflingly intricate. Croppies suggest the shapes are linked to sacred art, geometry and philosophy. Why indeed, this grassy patch is the spit of a William Blake carving.
Reported on 22 May 2010, Lucy suggests this formation is an approximation of Leonhard Euler’s equation e^(hi)pi)1=0
Croppies (this is not a facetious nickname, they call themselves that) have drawn links between the more intricate patterns and mathematical equations. The positioning of the shapes often bear striking similarities to numerical relationships, based on Euclidean geometry. On the other hand, as Freud once articulated, ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’.
Reported 2 June 2010. These energies are nothing if not precise. Almost all crop circles appear on chalk land where streams run underneath. In layman’s terms, the electrical forces from the ionosphere are attracted to the water particles in the streams and this is thought to be the reason the crop circles land. They also appear on limestone, which has the same qualities as chalk, with water running beneath. Another piece of the puzzle slides into place, but it’s a small piece – not a corner or anything.
Reported 3 June 2010. Someone’s been good this summer, the energies have awarded St Martin’s Chapel a star. The medieval chapel was built in the thirteenth century and is a focal point of spirituality in the Wiltshire region.
Reported 21 June 2010. Concentric circle heaven interspersed with panelled windmill shapes. Through every crop circle runs two parallel lines, which aren’t part of the formation – they are simply tramlines created by the farmer to facilitate crop spraying and harvesting.
Reported 25 June 2010. Just another pattern really. [Cough] I mean this formation is based on interconnecting circles. A theory emerged in the late 80s about plasma-vortexes which offered the explanation that the ringed circle formations were caused by electro magnetic vortexes. However, as the patterns developed, their relevance to the theory disintegrated.
Your blockbuster crop circle trivia question is: What is government’s involvement with crop circles? In the early 90s, cabinet ministers sat around a table to discuss crop circles and their potential dangers, no doubt shuffling lots of paper in the process and wearing discerning expressions. They were left dumbfounded, adding weight to the argument that crop circles really are an inexplicable phenomenon. Speaking of which, are there any wheat fields near Parliament?
This is a crop circle up-close and personal. Patterns occur when the plants are bent at a 90 degree angle and the wheat, barley or oats are intricately linked together like a plait, which makes it very difficult for the human hand to create.
The Tully Saucer Nest was the first media documented crop circle, allegedly discovered by an unsuspecting banana farmer in 1966, Queensland, Australia. The story goes that fibre healthy George Pedley witnessed a flying saucer whilst driving his tractor and later found a circular mass of reeds laid in a clockwise pattern in that very same spot, about 30 feet in diameter. With no logical explanations evident, the event was believed to be of a supernatural nature. Dubbed the ‘UFO Nest’ by croppie experts today, the story is largely unsubstantiated, but it’s a hell of a tale.
i-D will be out in their night vision goggles hoping for a showdown for the rest of the season.
Information collated from sources including cropcircleconnector.com