Crop circles have been surprisingly quiet this year, the first one in Britain (the world’s capital of crop circles) appearing on May 7th. The latest in what will no doubt be a prolific string of Summer crop circles, this latest one appears as a series of circles around two fanning “wings” with two round shapes at its core, and surrounded by a border that gives the entire shape an “insignia” look to it.
Crop circles have appeared several times throughout the area of Britain since long before 1880, when John Rand Capron mistook the formations for a wind related weather phenomenon suggesting extremely localized cyclone winds in a pattern that almost suggested intelligent designs. “we found a field of standing wheat considerably knocked about, not as an entirety, but in patches forming, as viewed from a distance, circular spots….I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field…” The phenomenon would then span three centuries and two millennia. Of course the latest of these crop circles is only one among thousands that have appeared over the past few generations.
The formation was discovered around an iron age fortress known as “Old Sarum.” The location has been the resting place of Roman, Saxon, Norman, and British inhabitants since it was first built. It is Salisbury’s oldest known settlement. Evidence has been found there that suggests inhabitants could have lived there as early as 3000 BC. The county has been the site of several crop circle formations over the years. The site was the location of a mysterious dragonfly crop formation last year. The previous formation was 150 feet in length just after a 600 foot long jellyfish formation appeared in nearby Oxfordshire. Normally crop circles appear around April, but this year is getting off to a slow start. The strange insignia is the first to appear in the country so far this year.
The crop formations have a tendency to appear on the sites of ancient Ley Lines; lines of energy that are thought to possess mystical powers that line up with most ancient sites in the world including the ancient pyramids, the sphinx, and Stonehenge. The Ley lines are also the location of other paranormal phenomena which reportedly follow them. But the locations themselves are not the most important aspect of these strange sightings. Over the years several hundred crop circles have appeared, each time overnight and each time without the identity of those creating them being discovered.
“Genuine” crop circles, as they’re labeled by agencies investigating them exhibit very specific characteristics that are achieved by unknown means. The grains used within them emit a very specific frequency of radiation, their stalks are bent (rather than snapped), almost as though they had grown in that shape, and the cell structure of the plants themselves appears to have been altered by the change. It is currently unknown if the “Old Sarum” crop circle is considered “genuine” or not. As investigators (and tourists) converge on the site, there is an air of mysticism in the area as everyone attempts to grasp the unexplainable.