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]
'''Crop circles''' are areas of ] or similar ] that have been systematically flattened to form various ] patterns. The phenomenon itself only entered the public imagination in its current form after the notable appearances in ] in the late ]. Various scientific and pseudo-scientific explanations were put forward to explain the phenomenon, which soon spread around the world. In 1991, more than a decade after the phenomena began, two men, ] and ], revealed that they had been making crop circles in England since ] using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools. Many other people around the world are also openly making crop circles, notably . Although the commonly accepted view today is that crop circles are a man-made phenomenon, paranormal explanations, often including ]s, are still popular.


A '''crop circle''', '''crop formation''', or '''corn circle''' is a pattern created by flattening a ],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/crop-circle?q=crop+circle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206022628/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/crop-circle?q=crop+circle|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 February 2015|title=crop circle - Definition of crop circle in English by Oxford Dictionaries|website=Oxford Dictionaries - English}}</ref> usually a ]. The term was first coined in the early 1980s.<ref>Colin Andrews, Pat Delgado ''Circular Evidence: A Detailed Investigation of the Flattened Swirled Crops''. Phanes Press, 1991. {{ISBN|0-7475-0635-3}}</ref> Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the sort of thing done in ]es" by ], professor of physics at ].<ref>Edis, Taner. '']''. Prometheus Books. 2008, p. 138. {{ISBN|1-59102-561-3}} "Skeptics begin by pointing out that many paranormal claims are the result of fraud or hoaxes. Crop circles—elaborate patterns that appear on fields overnight—appear to be of this sort. Many crop circle makers have come forth or have been exposed. We know a great deal about their various techniques. So we do not need to find the perpetrator of every crop circle to figure out that probably they all are human made. Many true believers remain who continue to think there is something paranormal—perhaps alien—about crop circles. But the circles we know all fall within the range of the sort of thing done in hoaxes. Nothing stands out as extraordinary."</ref>
People who study crop circle phenomena sometimes humorously call themselves "cerealogists", after the usually known name for the pseudoscience that studies crop circles: ]. Cerealogists call these designs ''agriglyphs''.


Although obscure natural causes or ] origins of crop circles are suggested by ],<ref name="parker2000human">{{Cite journal |title=Human science as conspiracy theory |author=Parker, Martin |journal=The Sociological Review |volume=48 |number=S2 |pages=191–207 |year=2000 |publisher=Wiley Online Library |doi=10.1111/j.1467-954x.2000.tb03527.x |s2cid=145482575}}</ref> there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human causation.<ref>Hines. T. ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books, 2003. pp. 295–96. {{ISBN|1-57392-979-4}}</ref><ref>Soto, J. ''Crop Cirles''. In Michael Shermer (ed.). ''The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience''. ABC-CLIO. pp. 67–70. {{ISBN|1-57607-653-9}}</ref><ref>Radford, B. . LiveScience.</ref> In 1991, two hoaxers, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, took credit for having created over 200 crop circles throughout England,<ref name="nyt1991" /> in widely-reported interviews. The number of reports of crop circles increased substantially after interviews with them. In the United Kingdom, reported circles are not distributed randomly across the landscape, but appear near roads, areas of medium to dense population, and cultural heritage monuments, such as ] or ].<ref name="northcote">{{cite web|last=Northcote |first=Jeremy |url=https://www.siue.edu/GEOGRAPHY/ONLINE/Northcote06.pdf |title= Spatial distribution of England's crop circles |website=] |access-date=1 February 2011}}</ref> They usually appear overnight.<ref name="Taylor2011">{{cite journal |author=Richard Taylor |date=August 2011 |title=Coming soon to a field near you |url=https://blogs.uoregon.edu/richardtaylor/files/2015/12/CropCirclesphysicsworld-1o814jx.pdf |department=Feature: Crop circles |journal=Physics World |volume=24 |issue=8 |page=26 |doi=10.1088/2058-7058/24/08/35 |bibcode=2011PhyW...24h..26T |ref={{harvid|Taylor|2011}}}}</ref>{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=140–142}} Nearly half of all crop circles found in the UK in 2003 were located within a {{convert|15|km|mi|abbr=on}} radius of the ] stone circles.<ref name="northcote" />
== History of crop circles ==
The phenomenon of crop circles became generally known in the 1970s, after the start of the hoaxes perpetrated by Bower and Chorley. Subsequently crop circle enthusiasts have tried finding examples of the phenomenon before this. Supposedly, the earliest recorded crop circle is depicted in a ] ] called the '']''. The image depicts a strange creature creating a circular design in a field of corn. The legend suggests that the farmer, disgusted at the wage his mower was demanding for his work, insisted that he would rather have the ] himself perform the task. Proponents of the belief that crop circles are either naturally caused, or are formed by as yet unknown entities, often support their viewpoint with this old tale. It is worth noting, however, that this is little more than a tale&mdash;the circular formation supposedly caused by the creature may be coincidental, or may have been caused by any number of natural or human processes.


In contrast to crop circles or crop formations, archaeological remains can cause ]s in the fields in the shapes of circles and squares, but these do not appear overnight, and are always in the same places every year.
Although the ]s created by ] in ] were most likely caused by fungus colonies, there was also a rarer kind, consisting of circular patches where the grass had been flattened:


== History ==
:''On lake shores, where the forest met the lake, you could find elf circles. They were round places where the grass had been flattened like a floor. Elves had danced there. By , I have seen one of those. It could be dangerous and one could become ill if one had trodden over such a place or if one destroyed anything there'' (an account given in ], Hellström 1990:36)


=== Before the 20th century ===
Not long after ], the aerial surveys that were being made over large areas of ] revealed some unexpected phenomena, undetectable from the ground. When the surveys photographed ripening crops or drought-stressed terrain they revealed what were soon termed "]", the differential ripening of the crop that revealed differences in the subsoil. These patterns were found to be caused by the buried remnants of ancient buildings. ] investigations were soon instigated, but, though many previously unsuspected archaeological sites were found, no crop circles were ever recorded. Skeptics argue that this would have pointed to circles as a modern phenomenon, even if the initial pranksters had not revealed themselves; believers reply different agendas may simply be at work in the modern day.


A 1678 news pamphlet '']'' describes a crop whose stalks were cut rather than bent.<ref name=dutch /> (see ]).
Crop Circles shot into prominence in the late ]s as many circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. To date, thousands of circles have appeared at sites across the world, from disparate locations such as the former ], the ] and ], as well as the ] and ].


In 1686, an English ], ], reported on rings or arcs of mushrooms (see ]s) in ''The Natural History of Stafford-Shire'', proposing air flows from the sky as a cause.<ref name=NatHist>{{cite book |author= John Aubrey |url= http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/nhwil10.txt |title= The Natural History of Stafford-Shire |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070402233131/http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/nhwil10.txt |archive-date= 2 April 2007 |df= dmy-all }} at ]</ref><ref name=PhiloTrans>{{cite journal |title= ''The Natural History of Staffordshire'' by Robert Plott; ''Sciotericum Telescopicum or a new Contrivance of adapting a Telescope to a Horizontall Diall, for observing the moment of time by day or night'' by Will Molineux |journal= Philosophical Transactions |volume= 16 |issue= 1686–1692 |jstor= 101866 |pages= 207–16 |department= Accounts of Books|year= 1686 }}</ref> In 1991, meteorologist Terence Meaden linked this report with modern crop circles, a claim that has been compared with those made by ].{{refn|group=n|Keving Greene wrote, <blockquote>The difficulties that exist in communicating the results of archaeology have undoubtedly contributed to the flourishing of writers, such as Erich von Däniken, who take a particular delight in deriding the inability of 'experts' to find explanations that seize the imagination of the public. (...) Few archaeologists have sold as many paperbacks as von Däniken; more recently, a meteorologist who linked crop circles to prehistoric ring-ditches or round barrows generated a reaction that no orthodox student of these monuments has ever achieved (Meaden 1991) <ref>{{cite book |title= Archaeology: An Introduction: The History, Principles and Methods of Modern Archaeology |author= Kevin Greene |edition= 3, fully revised |publisher= Routledge |year= 1995 |isbn= 0203447204 |url= http://mey.homelinux.org/companions/Kevin%20Greene/Archaeology_%20An%20Introduction,%20The%20Histor%20(401)/Archaeology_%20An%20Introduction,%20The%20Histor%20-%20Kevin%20Greene.pdf |ref= {{harvid|Greene|1995}} }}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref></blockquote>}}
== Creators of crop circles ==
In 1991, more than a decade after the phenomena began, two men announced that the phenomenon of crop circles was an idea thought up one evening in a pub in ], ] in ]. ] ] ] and his friend ] revealed that they made the crop circles using planks, rope, hats and wire as their only tools. Bower and Chorley stated to reporters that a small group of people can stomp down a sizeable area of crop in a single night. "Stomp" does not mean using the feet: simple tools to make crop circles have been demonstrated. .


An 1880 letter to the editor of '']'' by amateur scientist ] describes how several circles of flattened crops in a field were formed under suspicious circumstances and possibly caused by "cyclonic wind action", stating "as viewed from a distance, circular spots (...) they all presented much the same character, viz, a few standing stalks as a centre, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside there a circular wall of stalks which had not suffered".{{refn|name="Capron1880"|group=n|John Rand Capron wrote, <blockquote>The storms about this part of Surrey have been lately local and violent, and the effects produced in some instances curious. Visiting a neighbour's farm on Wednesday evening (21st), 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 (...) they all presented much the same character, viz, a few standing stalks as a centre, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside there a circular wall of stalks which had not suffered. (...) I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field, nor indicating whether it was wind or rain, or both combined, which had caused them, beyond the general evidence everywhere of heavy rainfall. They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic wind action, and may perhaps have been noticed elsewhere by some of your readers.<ref>{{cite journal |doi= 10.1038/022290d0 |bibcode= 1880Natur..22..290C |title= Storm Effects |url= http://www.iccra.org/Historical%20Research/Storm%20Effects_Nature_1880_J_Rand_Capron.pdf |year= 1880 |author= John Rand Capron |journal= Nature |volume= 22 |issue= 561 |page= |s2cid= 4078005 }} Retrieved from {{cite web |title= Nature archive for the decade 1880–1889 |url= http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/currentdecade.html?decade=1880&year=1880 |work= nature.com |publisher= Nature |access-date= 23 August 2011}} Republished in {{cite journal |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BGIdAQAAIAAJ |title= A case of genuine crop circles dating from July 1880 – as published in Nature in the year 1880 |journal= Journal of Meteorology |volume= 25 |pages= 20–21 |date=January 2000}}</ref></blockquote>}}
The pair became slightly frustrated that their work had not received as much publicity as they had hoped. In ] they created a crop circle in a highly visible area called the ] - an area surrounded by roads from which a clear view of the field is available to drivers passing by.


=== 20th century ===
Bower's wife had become increasingly suspicious of him due to noticing particularly high levels of road mileage in their car. Eventually, fearing that his wife suspected him of something else, Bower confessed to her what he had been doing and subsequently informed a ] national newspaper.
In 1932, archaeologist E. C. Curwen observed four dark rings in a field at Stoughton Down near Chichester, but could examine only one: "a circle in which the barley was ] or beaten down, while the interior area was very slightly mounded up."<ref>Sussex Notes and Queries, 1937 Eliot Cecil Curwen pp. 139–40</ref>


In ''],'' David Wood reported that in 1940 he made crop circles near ] using ropes.<ref>{{harvnb|Eddie|2004}} citing: {{cite journal |author=D. Wood |year=2000 |title=Pioneer pranksters? |journal=] |volume=131 |issue=52}}</ref>
Bower revealed on ] the method used, which was that of a four-foot-long plank with rope attached and circles of eight feet in diameter could be easily created. He stated that a 40-foot circle could be created by two men in a quarter of an hour. The designs were simple at first, just being circles. However, when Bower and Chorley had read newspaper reports claiming that the circles could eaily be explained by natural phenomena, they decided to up the stakes. A simple wire with a loop, hanging down from a cap - the loop positioned over one eye - could be used to focus on a landmark to aid in the created of straight lines. Later designs of crop circles were to become increasingly complex.


In 1963, ] described a crater in a potato field in Wiltshire that he considered was probably caused by an unknown meteoric body. In nearby wheat fields, there were several circular and elliptical areas where the wheat had been flattened. There was evidence of "spiral flattening". He thought they could be caused by air currents from the impact, since they led towards the crater.<ref>Moore P. 'That Wiltshire Crater' Letter to the editor ''New Scientist'' 8 August 1963
Dave Chorley died in 1996 though Doug Bower has made the occasional crop circle as recently as ] &mdash; over ten years after he revealed it to be a hoax. Bower has said that, had it not been for his wife's suspicions, he would have taken the secret to his deathbed, never revealing that it was a hoax.
{{blockquote|1=In the adjoining wheatfields were other features, taking the form of circular or elliptical areas in which the wheat had been flattened. I saw these myself; they had not been much visited, and were certainly peculiar One, very well-defined, was an oval 15 yards long by 41 broad. There was evidence of "spiral flattening", and in one case there was a circular area in the centre in which the wheat had not been flattened. In no case was there any evidence of an actual depression in the ground.


(...) could have been caused by natural subsidence, but it did not give that impression, and in any case there are the areas of flattened wheat to be taken into account; it would be remarkable coincidence if these areas were not associated with the crater. Since the areas of flattened wheat "led" to the crater, it looks very much as though they, and the crater, were caused by something which came from the sky. In this case, the wheat would have been flattened by violent air-currents produced by the falling body.}}
, the most famous group of crop circle makers founded by John Lundberg have demonstrated that making what self-appointed cerealogist experts state are "unfakeable" crop circles is possible. One such cerealogist, ], was filmed claiming that a crop circle was genuine when the night before the making of that crop circle by humans was filmed. On the night of July 11-12, ], a crop-circle making competition, for a prize of several thousand pounds (partly funded by the ] Foundation), was held in ]. The winning entry was produced by three helicopter engineers, using rope, ] pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another competitor used a small garden roller, a plank and some rope. The size and complexity of the designs produced demonstrated the minimal equipment and preparation required to produce a crop design, lending more credence to the fact that this phenomenon is purely and solely the result of humans playing pranks.
</ref> Astronomer ] observed similar craters and said they were likely caused by lightning strikes.<ref>Hugh Ernest Butler 'That Wiltshire Crater', ''New Scientist'' issue 352, 15 August 1963 Letters to the editor</ref>


During the 1960s, there were many reports of UFO sightings and circular formations in swamp reeds and sugarcane fields in ], Australia, and in Canada.<ref name=skepticssa/> For example, on 8 August 1967, three circles were found in a field in ], Canada; ] investigators concluded that it was artificial but couldn't say who made them or how.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ufo/002029-1200-e.html |title= Canada's Unidentified Flying Objects: The Search for the Unknown: Duhamel, Alberta: August 1967 |date= 14 December 2007 |orig-year= 2005}} At Library and Archives Canada. ( in French).</ref> The most famous case is the 1966 Tully "saucer nest", when a farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise {{convert|30 or 40|ft|m|0|abbr=on|order=flip}} from a swamp and then fly away. On investigating he found a nearly circular area {{convert|32|ft|m|0|abbr=on|order=flip}} long by {{convert|25|ft|m|0|abbr=on|order=flip}} wide where the grass was flattened in clockwise curves to water level within the circle, and the reeds had been uprooted from the mud.<ref name=skepticssa>{{cite web |author= Laurie Eddie |date= 4 November 2004 |url= http://www.skepticssa.org.au/html/cropcircles.html |title= The Skeptics SA Guide to: Crop circles |work= Skepticssa.org.au. |publisher= Skeptics SA |access-date= 2012-01-01 |ref= {{harvid|Eddie|2004}} |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110823020100/http://www.skepticssa.org.au/html/cropcircles.html |archive-date= 23 August 2011 |url-status= dead }}</ref> The local police officer, the ], and the ] concluded that it was most probably caused by natural causes, like a down draught, a ] (dust devil), or a ].{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}} In 1973, G.J. Odgers, Director of Public Relations, Department of Defence (Air Office), wrote to a journalist that the "saucer" was probably debris lifted by a willy-willy.
''Scientific American'' published an article by Matt Ridley (August 2002, p. 25), who started making crop circles in ] in ]. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on "expert" sources such as the '']'' who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained.


After the 1960s, there was a surge of UFOlogists in ], and there were rumours of "saucer nests" appearing in the area, but they were never photographed.<ref name="smithsonian" /> There are other pre-1970s reports of circular formations, especially in Australia and Canada, but they were always simple circles, which could have been caused by whirlwinds.<ref name="skepticssa" />
Methods to create a hoaxed crop circle have been well-documented on the ].


British pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley reported they started creating crop circles in British cornfields in 1978, inspired by the Tully "saucer nest" case.<ref name="dutch" /><ref name="skepticssa" /><ref>{{cite book |title= The Demon-Haunted World |author= Carl Sagan |author-link= Carl Sagan |year= 1997 |pages= 72–76|isbn= 0747251568 |publisher= ] |ref= {{harvid|Sagan|1997}}|title-link= The Demon-Haunted World }}</ref><ref name="NGEO" /><ref name="smithsonian">{{cite web |author1= Rob Irving |author2= Peter Brookesmith |url= http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Crop-Circles-The-Art-of-the-Hoax.html |title= Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax |work= Smithsonian.com |date= December 15, 2009 |access-date= 20 December 2012 |archive-date= 12 November 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131112171948/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Crop-Circles-The-Art-of-the-Hoax.html |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= The flattened crops society |work= ] |date= September 7, 2002 | author= Jim Gilchrist |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-12991491.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140611120139/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-12991491.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= June 11, 2014 }}</ref>
A counter argument to hoaxing is that where circles appear in crops mature enough that they carry ]s (as they do so often) seed-pods are unbroken, whereas trampling causes seed-pod breakage. Crop circle hoaxers counter that it is easy to leave dry seed pods unbroken during stomping and also leave no trace of entrance and egress trampling when the plants and ground are both dry and some care is taken while walking. Several crop circles later to have been determined to be hoaxes, were at first certified as being 'genuine' by cerealogists due to the lack of seed pod breakage. Entry to a field without leaving traces is also easy, since there always are several tracks made by the machines used to spray ]s on the crop that people can use.


The first film to depict a geometric crop circle, in this case created by super-intelligent ants, was the 1974 science-fiction film '']''. The film has been cited as a possible inspiration or influence on the pranksters who started this phenomenon.<ref>Pilkington, Mark (2010) "History, the Hive Mind, and Agrarian Art". In ''The Anomalist'', Vol. 14. http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/4106/</ref>
Some claim that the circles might still have merit as a social phenomenon regardless of their legitimacy. ] experts have expressed interest in researching the shapes and symbols depicted.


The majority of reports of crop circles have appeared and spread since the late 1970s<ref name=dutch>{{cite book |title= Reframing Dutch Culture: Between Otherness and Authenticity |series= Progress in European Ethnology |author1= Peter Jan Margry |author2= Herman Roodenburg |edition= illustrated |publisher= ] |year= 2007 |pages= 150–151 |isbn= 978-0-7546-4705-8 |ref= {{harvid|Margry & Roodenburg|2007}}}}</ref> as many circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. This phenomenon became widely known in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop circles in ] and Wiltshire. After Bower and Chorley gave interviews in 1991 about how they had made crop circles, circles started appearing all over the world.<ref name="Taylor2011" /> By 2001, approximately 10,000 crop circles have been reported internationally, from locations such as the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, the U.S., and Canada. Researchers have noted a correlation between crop circles, recent media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or anti-trespassing legislation.<ref>{{cite news | title = Disease brings poor crop of circles | newspaper = BBC News | date = 2001-08-17 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1496296.stm | access-date = 2007-02-08}}</ref>
Circlemaker Matthew Williams was the first circlemaker ever to be arrested and charged with criminal damage to farmland in 2000. Since then, Matthew has gone on to give many public demonstrations on how circles are made in complete darkness with simple tools such as a tape measure and board.


Although farmers expressed concern at the damage caused to their crops, local response to the appearance of crop circles was often enthusiastic, with locals taking advantage of the increase of tourism and visits from scientists, crop circle researchers, and individuals seeking spiritual experiences.<ref name="NGEO">{{cite news |author=Hillary Mayell |date=2 August 2002 |title=Crop circles: Artwork or alien signs |page= |magazine=National Geographic |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0801_020801_cropcircles.html |url-status=dead |access-date=28 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115211610/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0801_020801_cropcircles.html |archive-date=15 November 2011}}</ref> The market for crop circle interest consequently generated bus or helicopter tours of circle sites, walking tours, T-shirts, and book sales.
Some crop-circle ''photographs'' are hoaxes, created using ].


== Crop circle designs == === 21st century ===
Since the start of the 21st century, crop formations have increased in size and complexity, with some featuring as many as 2,000 different shapes<ref name="Taylor2011" /> and some incorporating complex mathematical and scientific characteristics.<ref>{{cite news |author= Benjamin Radford |url= http://www.livescience.com/6546-beautiful-math-equation-crop-circle.html |title= 'Beautiful Math Equation' Found in Crop Circle |work= ] |date= 8 June 2010 |access-date= 2012-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author= Marc West |date= 2008-06-30 |url= http://plus.maths.org/content/pi-appears-crop-circle |title= Pi appears in crop circle |work= plus.maths.org. |access-date= 2012-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/crop-circle-season-arrives-with-a-mathematical-message-1982647.html |title= Crop circle season arrives with a mathematical message |department= This Britain |newspaper= The Independent |date= 2010-05-26 |access-date= 2012-01-01}}</ref>
Early examples of this phenomenon were usually simple circular patterns of various sizes, which led some people to speculate that it was a natural phenomenon. But after some years more and more elaborate and complex geometric patterns have emerged.


The researcher Jeremy Northcote found that crop circles in the UK in 2002 were not spread randomly across the landscape. They tended to appear near roads, areas of medium-to-dense population, and cultural heritage monuments such as ] or ]. He found that they always appeared in areas that were easy to access. This suggests strongly that these crop circles were more likely to be caused by intentional human action than by paranormal activity. Another strong indication of that theory was that inhabitants of the zone with the most circles had a historical tendency for making large-scale formations, including stone circles such as Stonehenge, earthen mounds such as ], long barrows such as ], and ].<ref name="northcote"/>
There have been many recurring themes over the years. In general, the early formations (1970 - 2000) seemed to those who believe in a para-normal origin of the circles to be based on the principles of ]. Later formations, those occurring after 2000, appear to be based on other principles, natural sciences and mathematics designs, including ]s. Many crop circles have fine intricate detail, regular symmetry and careful composition.


== Bower and Chorley ==
Sometimes complex crop illustrations have also appeared, including cartoon characters. Crop circles have also started being used in advertising. ], ] and ] are examples of products that have had commercials made for them in the form of crop formations.
In 1991, two self-professed ], Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, made headlines by saying they had started the crop circle phenomenon in 1978, using simple tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in straight lines.<ref name="today91">{{cite news |author= Graham Brough |year= 1991 |title= Men who conned the world |url= https://menwhoconnedtheworld.weebly.com/new-11-today-september-9-1991.html |newspaper= Today (defunct) |location= UK}}</ref> To prove their case they made a circle in front of journalists; a "cereologist" (advocate of paranormal explanations of crop circles), Pat Delgado, examined the circle and declared it authentic before it was revealed that it was a hoax.<ref name="nyt1991">{{cite news |title= 2 'Jovial Con Men' Demystify Those Crop Circles in Britain |newspaper=The New York Times |author= William E. Schmidt |date= 10 September 1991 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/10/world/2-jovial-con-men-demystify-those-crop-circles-in-britain.html}}</ref><ref name="today91"/><ref>{{cite news |title= Two British artists admit playing 'circles' hoax for the past 13 years |agency= Houston Chronicle News Services |date= 10 September 1991 |newspaper= Houston Chronicle |page= A2 |edition= Star |url= http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1991_808420/two-british-artists-admit-playing-circles-hoax-for.html}}</ref>


Inspired by Australian crop circle accounts from 1966, Bower and Chorley claimed to be responsible for all circles made prior to 1987, and for more than 200 crop circles in 1978–1991 (with 1,000 other circles not being made by them).<ref name="Taylor2011" /><ref name="Ridley" /> Writing in '']'', Richard Taylor of the ] said that "the pictographs they created inspired a second wave of crop artists. Far from fizzling out, crop circles have evolved into an international phenomenon, with hundreds of sophisticated pictographs now appearing annually around the globe."<ref name="Taylor2011" />
==Contending beliefs==
Most critical observers, and the scientific mainstream, are convinced that crop circles are ]s or ]es engineered by humans, and indeed more and more crop formations have been claimed by their makers. This explanation, supported by the documentation produced by some crop-circle hoaxers, has the advantage of not requiring us first to assume the existence of flying saucers or other as-yet-unobserved phenomena. However, there are many contending hypotheses which assume that at least ''some'' crop circles are not the products of mundane hoaxers; these hypotheses vary in their degree of scientific rigor, but all fall to some extent outside the mainstream.


== Art and business ==
One modern unscientific belief, is that crop circles are created by ]s landing in fields and flattening a neat circle in the crop. However, the increasing complexity of formations from the 1980s on, and the implausibility of the idea that extraterrestrial beings would travel to Earth for the sole apparent reason of flattening crops, make this conjecture seem unlikely.


After reports of simple circles in the 1970s, increasingly complex geometric designs have been created by anonymous artists, in some cases to attract tourists to an area.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/crop-circles-the-art-of-the-hoax-2524283/ |title=Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax |newspaper=Smithsonian |first1=Rob |last1=Irving |first2=Peter |last2=Brookesmith |date=15 December 2009 |access-date=23 April 2018}}</ref>
{{Infobox Pseudoscience
|name=Cereology
|topics=* ] ] ]
|claims=* Extraterrestials visit Earth and employ either mysterious vibrations or waves or mysterious force beams to create crop circles.
|origyear=* c. 1975
|origprop=* unknown, possibly ]
|currentprop=* unknown
}}


Since the early 1990s, the UK arts collective Circlemakers, founded by ] and ], and subsequently including Wil Russell and Rob Irving, has been creating crop circles in the UK and around the world as part of its art practice and also for commercial clients.<ref>{{cite book |author= Henry Hemming |year= 2009 |title= In Search of the English Eccentric |publisher= John Murray |isbn= 978-0719522123}}</ref>
Some pseudoscientifically inclined enthusiasts suggest that an explanation more plausible than flying saucers might be ], the visualisation of vibration or sound. According to this hypothesis, the complex patterns are two-dimensional geometric or visual representations of sound frequencies, with higher sound frequencies producing more complex shapes similar to both ]s and crop circle designs.


The ] that was released on 7 September 1990, along with the ], as well as the ], all feature an image of a crop circle that appeared in East Field in ], ].
Another pseudoscientific hypothesis is that a man-made satellite in Earth orbit is using some kind of beam (e.g., ]s) to create the designs. Heating stems of wheat with a short intense burst of microwave energy can produce wilting similar to that in a crop circle. Flattened stems often have the bend just below a stem-node, and also may feature blackened burn holes indicative of intense heating. Microwave heating has been shown to be capable of producing these effects. It is postulated by believers of this theory that the U.S. ]'s ] has a satellite capable of delivering such a microwave beam. However, there is a reasonable counter-argument to this stating that there were no traces of supposed radiation detected in the crop circles. Crops that were bent using the microwave technique showed all signs of various radiations and moisture differences. The original crops in the crop circle showed no abnormalities compared to normal crops, except for being mysteriously bent.


]]]
Often touted as evidence for the mystic origin of crop circles is the coincidence that many circles in the ] area of southern ] occur near ancient sites such as earth ]s or mounds, ] carved in the chalk hills, and ]s. Other ideas on their formation have been proposed include ]es, freak wind patterns, ], and something called "plasma vortices".


On the night of 11–12 July 1992, a crop-circle-making competition with a prize of ]3,000<ref>{{cite book|title=Crop Circles|author=Andrea Pelleschi|publisher=Essential Library/ABDO|year=2012|page=73}}</ref> (funded in part by the ] Foundation) was held in ]. The winning entry was produced by three ] engineers, using rope, ] pipe, a plank, string, a telescopic device and two stepladders.<ref>{{cite news |author= David Jenkins |title= Crop circle conundrum |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/7955868/Crop-circle-conundrum.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100826234201/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/7955868/Crop-circle-conundrum.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 26 August 2010 |access-date= 10 August 2012 |newspaper= ] |date= 25 August 2010}}</ref> According to Rupert Sheldrake, the competition was organised by him and John Michell and "co-sponsored by The Guardian and The Cerealogist". The prize money came from ''PM'', a German magazine. Sheldrake wrote that "The experiment was conclusive. Humans could indeed make all the features of state-of-the-art crop formations at that time. Eleven of the twelve teams made more or less impressive formations that followed the set design."<ref>{{cite web |author= Rupert Sheldrake |title= The Crop Circle Making Competition |url= http://www.sheldrake.org/Articles&Papers/articles/pdf/Cropcircles_Michellany.pdf |publisher= Rupert Sheldrake |access-date= 10 August 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121207041147/http://www.sheldrake.org/Articles%26Papers/articles/pdf/Cropcircles_Michellany.pdf |archive-date= 7 December 2012 |df= dmy-all }}</ref>
A number of witnesses claim to have observed circles being created, saying that it takes a few seconds and the corn falls flat like a fan being opened &ndash; though these accounts are always anecdotal and have never been supported by any evidence beyond the claimants' assertions. Crop circle enthusiasts, though they do not always have scientific backgrounds or credentials, claim that there are other features of crop circles that undercut the hoax theory. They say that bends in the corn in many circles occur just below a joint, while the flattening of the corn by hoaxers produces a crack at any point in the stem, and some scientific studies on ]s bear them out. Also they say that flattened corn often lies in groomed layers, rather than random crushings. While there have been cases in which believers declared crop circles to be 'the real thing', only to be confronted soon after with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud, the bending issue remains in dispute. For this reason, skeptics prefer the explanation that there are simply different hoaxers employing different techniques.


In 2002, ] commissioned five aeronautics and astronautics graduate students from ] to create crop circles of their own, aiming to duplicate some of the features claimed to distinguish "real" crop circles from the known fakes such as those created by Bower and Chorley. The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery Channel documentary ''Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields''.<ref name=discovery1>{{cite AV media |title= Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields |publisher= Discovery Channel |date= 2002-10-10}}</ref>
==Similar phenomena==
*Lawn Cross of ]
*]s
*In an unrelated phenomenon, fungal circles formed by a spreading ] are familiar, though on a much smaller scale. Older, larger fungal circles are not recognized when they have broken into arcs or patches. In ] and in ], the phenomenon of ]s or ]s forming circles in a patch of meadow or pasture was referred to in folklore as ''älvringar'', '']s'' or ''elf circles'', and was attributed by countryfolk to mystical forces. This phenomenon is both commonplace and much smaller in scale, however, and is recognized as the natural growth of ] colonies.


In 2009, ''The Guardian'' reported that crop circle activity had been waning around Wiltshire, in part because makers preferred creating promotional crop circles for companies that paid well for their efforts.<ref name="vidal guardian"/>
==In fiction==


A video sequence used in connection with the opening of the ] in London showed two crop circles in the shape of the ]. Another Olympic crop circle was visible to passengers landing at nearby ] before and during the Games.<ref name="olympic">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnclarke/2012/07/09/mystery-crop-circles-revealed-as-olympic-publicity-stunt/|title=Mystery Crop Circles Revealed As Olympic Publicity Stunt|last=Clarke|first=John|date=July 9, 2012|magazine=]|access-date=July 29, 2015}}</ref>
*In the film '']'' (]), Harold and Kumar hang glide over a field with a crop circle pattern in the shape of male genitalia.


A {{convert|3|ha|acre|0|abbr=on}} crop circle depicting the emblem of the '']'' ] was created in California in December 2017 by a father and his 11-year-old son as a ] for ]s.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://abc7news.com/entertainment/bay-area-father-son-turn-field-into-star-wars-tribute/2778451/|title=Bay Area father, son turn field into 'Star Wars' tribute|date=13 December 2017|work=KGO-TV|access-date=4 January 2018|publisher=ABC7 News}}</ref>
*In the film '''' (]) directed by and starring ] and ], crop circles of Wiltshire are the background for a supernatural love story.


== Legal implications ==
*In the film '']'' (]), directed by ] and starring ] and ], crop circles are attributed to the sinister motives of ].
In 1992, Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then aged 17, were the first people to face legal action after creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary specializing in ], created a {{convert|36|m|ft|abbr=on|adj=on}} diameter crop circle in a wheat field near ], {{convert|69|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} southwest of ], on 8 June 1992. In September, the pair appeared on Hungarian TV and exposed the circle as a hoax, showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made.<ref name="randi-1995">{{Cite book |last=Randi |first=James |title=] |date=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-15119-5 |location=New York, NY|author-link=James Randi}}</ref> As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the teens for 630,000&nbsp;] (~$3,000&nbsp;USD) in ]. The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the circle itself,<ref name="randi-1995" /> amounting to about 6,000&nbsp;Ft (~$30&nbsp;USD), and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors who flocked to Székesfehérvár following the media's promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students' legal fees.{{Citation needed|date=September 2009}}


In 2000, Matthew Williams became the first man in the UK to be arrested for causing criminal damage after making a crop circle near ].<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/police-unravel-mystery-of-the-crop-circle-621923.html |location= London |newspaper= The Independent |title= Police unravel mystery of the crop circle |author= Cahal Milmo |date= November 4, 2000 |access-date= 26 August 2017 |archive-date= 25 September 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150925032257/http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/police-unravel-mystery-of-the-crop-circle-621923.html |url-status= dead }}</ref> In November 2000, he was fined £100 plus £40 in costs.<ref>{{cite news|title=Man fined £100 for making crop circle |newspaper=thisiswiltshire.co.uk |location=Weybridge |date=7 November 2000 |url=http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/archive/2000/11/07/7393897.Man_fined___100_for_making_crop_circle/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515090322/http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/archive/2000/11/07/7393897.Man_fined___100_for_making_crop_circle/ |archive-date=15 May 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Secrets of crop circles |newspaper=thisiswiltshire.co.uk |location=Weybridge |date=2 May 2002 |url=http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/archive/2002/05/02/7351329.Secrets_of_crop_circles/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123193451/http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/archive/2002/05/02/7351329.Secrets_of_crop_circles/ |archive-date=23 January 2015 }}</ref> {{As of|2008}}, no one else has been successfully prosecuted in the UK for criminal damage caused by creating crop circles.{{refn|group=n|name= "Cohen2008"|In a newspaper article Lewis Cohen wrote, "Williams is probably best known as the only person in the UK to be successfully prosecuted for making crop circles. He has since made a name for himself creating crop circles for TV companies and commercial firms..."<ref>{{cite news |title= Mystery surrounds emergency landing |newspaper= thisiswiltshire.co.uk |location= Weybridge |author= Lewis Cohen |date= 25 February 2008 |url= http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/2070463.Mystery_surrounds_emergency_landing/}}</ref>}}
*In '']'', a book written by ] for the charity ], a creature called a mooncalf occasionally performs strange dances flattening crops in fields "to the confusion of many ]s".


==Advertising== == Creation ==
]
In July ] ] launched an ] campaign where the company leases space on crop fields to display adverts created by mowing crops. The campaign is aimed at air travellers since the company competes with domestic ]s for customers. Consequently the adverts are placed near the approach paths of major ] ]. ( in swedish, with links to images)


=== Human origin ===
==Further reading==
The scientific consensus on crop circles is that they are constructed by human beings as hoaxes, ], or ].<ref name="bbc">{{cite web |date=9 August 2000 |title=Magnetic 'solution' to crop circle puzzle |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/872142.stm |access-date=30 September 2015 |work=BBC News}}</ref> The most widely known method for a person or group to construct a crop formation is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point and the other end to a board which is used to crush the plants. It is also possible to bend grass without breaking it, if it has recently rained—a method that was used to create crop circles in Hungary in 1992.<ref name="randi-1995" /> Skeptics of the paranormal point out that all characteristics of crop circles are fully compatible with their being made by hoaxers.<ref name="csicop">{{cite journal |author=Joe Nickell |date=September–October 2002 |title=Circular Reasoning: The 'Mystery' of Crop Circles and Their 'Orbs' of Light |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/circular_reasoning_the_mystery_of_crop_circles_and_their_orbs_of_light/ |url-status=live |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=26 |issue=5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206012813/http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html |archive-date=2006-12-06 |ref={{harvid|Nickell|2002}}}}</ref><ref name="randi-1995" />
* ''The Hypnotic Power of Crop Circles'', by , 2004. ISBN 1931882347
* ''Round in Circles: Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers'', by Robin W. Allen and Jim Schnabel, 1994. ISBN 1591021103.
* ''Circular Evidence: Bloomsbury, London'' by Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado, 1989, ISBN 0747506353.
* ''The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research and Urban Legends'', by Eltjo H. Haselhoff, ISBN 0285636251.
* ''Opening Minds'' by Dr. Simeon Hein, ISBN 0971586306.
* Hellström. 1990. ''En Krönika om Åsbro''. ISBN 91-7194-726-4
* ''Crop Circles'' by Lucy Pringle, 2004, Pitkin (an imprint of Jarrold Publishing) ''(largely in favour of the supernatural explanation of Crop Circles)'', ISBN 1841651389.
*Carl Sagan, 1996. ''The Demon-Haunted world: Science as a Candle in the Dark''; "Aliens" pp 73ff.
* DVD Documentaries ''Contact'' and ''Crop Circles - The Research''
* ] on


Bower and Chorley confessed in 1991 to making the first crop circles in southern England.<ref name="Taylor2011"/> When some people refused to believe them, they deliberately added straight lines and squares to show that they could not have natural causes. In a copycat effect, increasingly complex circles started appearing in many countries around the world, including ] figures. Physicists have suggested that the most complex formations might be made with the help of GPS and lasers. In 2009, a circle formation was made over the course of three consecutive nights and was apparently left unfinished, with some half-made circles.<ref name="Taylor2011"/>
==External links==
<!-- NOTE: the number of links in this list is becoming overwhelmingly large. Please give due consideration when comtemplating adding a new link. -->
'''''Crop circle galleries:'''''
*
*
*
*
*


The main criticism of alleged non-human creation of crop circles is that while evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is absent, many are definitely known to be the work of human pranksters, and others can be adequately explained as such. There have been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be "the real thing", only to be confronted with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud,<ref>{{cite journal |author= Joe Nickell |author-link= Joe Nickell |title= Crop-circle mania: An investigative update |journal= Skeptical Inquirer}} Cited as reference 6 in {{harvnb|Nickell|1996}}</ref> like Bower and Chorley and tabloid ''Today'' hoaxing Pat Delgado,<ref name="today91"/><ref name="economist91"/> the Wessex Sceptics and ]'s ''Equinox'' hoaxing Terence Meaden,<ref name="Ridley"/><ref name="economist91">{{cite news |title= Flattened. (crop circles hoax) |magazine= ] |location= US |date= 14 September 1991 |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11247968.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130515213014/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11247968.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 15 May 2013 |url-access=}}</ref> or a friend of a ] farmer hoaxing a field researcher of the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network.<ref>{{cite news|title=Farmer embarrassed by crop circle hoax |agency=] |date=2 October 2007 |work=canada.com |url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=c363e5a1-ce48-488b-bd21-9f3943e2d952&k=60192 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018061250/http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=c363e5a1-ce48-488b-bd21-9f3943e2d952&k=60192 |archive-date=18 October 2013 }}</ref> In his 1995 book '']'', ] concludes that crop circles were created by Bower and Chorley and their copycats, and speculates that ] willingly ignore the evidence for hoaxing so they can keep believing in an extraterrestrial origin of the circles.{{sfn|Sagan|1997}} Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles can be created.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/2R89.html |title=Faking UFOs |author=Roel Van der Meulen |publisher=Roel Van der Meulen |year=1994 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123033522/http://galactic-guide.com/articles/2R89.html |archive-date=23 November 2011 }}</ref> '']'' published an article by ],<ref name="Ridley">{{cite journal |first= Matt |last=Ridley |author-link= Matt Ridley |title= Crop circle confession |journal= ] |date= 15 July 2002 |volume=287 |issue=2 |page=25 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0802-25 |bibcode=2002SciAm.287b..25R | url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=crop-circle-confession | access-date = 2007-08-16}}</ref> who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on "expert" sources such as '']'' who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe ] explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods of creating a crop circle are now well documented on the ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How to Make a Crop Circle: 15 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow Life |url=https://www.wikihow.life/Make-a-Crop-Circle |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=www.wikihow.life}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-05-13 |title=Author Benjamin Myers on the crop circle makers who 'blew people's minds' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-61332202 |access-date=2023-10-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |title=Crop Circles: The Art of the Hoax |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/crop-circles-the-art-of-the-hoax-2524283/ |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref>
'''''Skeptical and scientific analysis:'''''
* http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0801_020801_cropcircles.html This is an excellent introduction to crop circles, with a special emphasis on their value as art.
* http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html The Center for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal looks at "crop circles" and is not impressed.
* http://skepdic.com/cropcirc.html The Skeptic's Dictionary and CSICOP links to non-supernatural articles on crop circles.
*


Some crop formations are paid for by companies who use them as advertising.<ref name="vidal guardian"/>{{refn|group=n|name= "Cohen2008"}} Many crop circles show human symbols, like the heart and arrow symbol of love, and stereotyped alien faces.{{refn|group=n|The website Crop Circle Research.com described one formation stating, "It looks reminiscent of a fake dummy constructed by 'Balok' in a Star Trek episode called ']'{{sic}} (series 1)' or the logo of local soccer club ]".{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=143–145}}}}
'''''Websites of self-confessed circle hoaxers:'''''
* http://www.circlemakers.org/ The most famous group of crop circle makers, founded by Doug Bower, Dave Chorley and John Lundberg.
* http://www.amtsgym-sdbg.dk/as/crop/ufofake.HTM An entertaining report on how an elaborate crop circle made by astronomy students at Amtsgymnasiet in Sonderborg, Sweden fooled crop circle "researchers".
* http://www.cropcircle-archive.com/intro.html A complete crop circle database site in flash with nice animations of crop circle constructions using the "ruler and compass" rule.


Hoaxers have been caught in the process of making new circles, such as in 2004 in the Netherlands{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=143–145}}
'''''Pro paranormal explanation websites:'''''
*
* http://www.cropcircles.org
* http://www.cropcircleresearch.com A page devoted to researching the phenomenon of Crop Circles - albeit from a slightly biased point of view.
* http://home.clara.net/lucypringle/ This site is the de facto standard for comprehensive aerial photographs of the UK's crop circles.
*
* http://www.CropCircleInfo.com


=== Natural origins ===
]
]
]
]


==== Weather ====
]
It has been suggested that crop circles may be the result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena ranging from freak ]es to ], but there is no evidence of any crop circle being created by any of these causes.<ref name="Taylor2011" /><ref name="csicop" />
]

]
In 1880, an amateur scientist, John Rand Capron, wrote a letter to the editor of journal ''Nature'' about some circles in crops and blamed them on a recent storm, saying their shape was "suggestive of some cyclonic wind action".{{refn|group=n|name= "Capron1880"}}
]

]
In 1980, Terence Meaden, a meteorologist and physicist, proposed that the circles were caused by whirlwinds whose course was affected by southern England hills.<ref name="Taylor2011" /> As circles became more complex, Terence had to create increasingly complex theories, blaming an electromagneto-hydrodynamic "plasma vortex".<ref name="Taylor2011" /> The meteorological theory became popular, and it was even referenced in 1991 by physicist ] who said that, "Corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air".<ref name="Taylor2011" /> The weather theory suffered a serious blow in 1991, but Hawking's point about hoaxes was supported when Bower and Chorley stated that they had been responsible for making all those circles.{{refn|group=n|name="Taylor2011_note"|In a ''Physics World'' article Richard Taylor wrote, "Today, with the benefit of hindsight, such explanations sound rather contrived. At the height of the debate, though, no less a physicist than Stephen Hawking was prepared to accept some version of Meaden's theory. When a spate of circles appeared in the countryside near his Cambridge home in 1991, Hawking told a local newspaper that "crop circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air"<ref>{{harvnb|Taylor|2011}}</ref>}} By the end of 1991 Meaden conceded that those circles that had complex designs were made by hoaxers.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Simon Hoggart |url=https://archive.org/details/bizarrebeliefs0000hogg |title=Bizarre Beliefs |author2=Mike Hutchinson |publisher=Richard Cohen Books |year=1995 |isbn=9781573921565 |location=London |page= |url-access=registration}} Cited in {{harvnb|Nickell|2002}}</ref>
]

]
==== Animal activity ====
]
In 2009, the attorney general for the island state of ] stated that Australian ] had been found creating crop circles in fields of ], which are grown legally for medicinal use, after consuming some of the opiate-laden poppies and running in circles.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 June 2009 |title=Stoned wallabies make crop circles |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8118257.stm |access-date=31 May 2011 |newspaper=BBC News}}</ref>
]

]
=== Alternative explanations ===
]
In science magazines from the 1980s and 1990s, for example '']'', one could read reports suggesting that the plants were bent by something that could be microwave radiation, rather than broken by physical impact. The magazines also contained serious reports of the absence of human influence and measurement of unusual radiation. Today, this is considered to be pseudoscience, while at the time it was subject of serious research. At that time, it was also more likely that an unknown factor was behind the incidents, not least seen in light of the fact that GPS was not available to the public.<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 July 2016 |title=Crop circle research held back by UFO conspiracy links |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-07-26/scientific-crop-circle-research-held-back-by-ufo-links/7660712 |newspaper=ABC News}}</ref>
]

]
==== Paranormal ====
]
] circa 1998]]

Since becoming the focus of widespread media attention in the 1980s, crop circles have been the subject of speculation by various ], ], and ] investigators, ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from ].<ref name="csicop" /><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5777580/Mayan-apocalypse-crop-circle-appears-at-Silbury-Hill.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5777580/Mayan-apocalypse-crop-circle-appears-at-Silbury-Hill.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title= Mayan 'apocalypse' crop circle appears at Silbury Hill |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date= 8 July 2009}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Haselhoff1">{{cite book |author= Eltjo Haselhoff |year= 2001 |title= The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research & Urban Legends |publisher= Frog Ltd |isbn= 1583940464}}</ref><ref name="clark1">{{cite book |author1= Jerome Clark |author2= Nancy Pear |year= 1995 |title= Strange and Unexplained Happenings: When Nature Breaks the Rules of Science |publisher= ] |volume= 3 |isbn= 0810397803 |url= https://archive.org/details/strangeunexplain0000unse }}</ref> There has also been speculation that crop circles have a relation to ]s.<ref name="Haselhoff1" />{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=138–139}}<ref name="faussett1">{{cite book |author= Charles Godfrey-Faussett |year= 2004 |title= England |series= Footprint Travel Guides |isbn= 1903471915 |url= https://archive.org/details/footprintengland00godf }}</ref>

Some paranormal advocates think that crop circles are caused by ] and that the patterns are so complex that they have to be controlled by some entity.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|page=138}} Some proposed entities are: ] asking to stop ] and human ]; ]; supernatural beings (for example Indian ]); the collective minds of humanity through a proposed "quantum field"; and extraterrestrial beings.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|page=138}}

Responding to local beliefs that "extraterrestrial beings" in UFOs were responsible for crop circles appearing, the Indonesian ] (LAPAN) described crop circles as "man-made". {{ill|Thomas Djamaluddin|id}}, research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at LAPAN stated, "We have come to agree that this 'thing' cannot be scientifically proven." Among others, paranormal enthusiasts, ufologists, and anomalistic investigators have offered hypothetical explanations that have been criticised as ] by ] groups and scientists, including the ].<ref name="vidal guardian">{{cite news |author= John Vidal |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jun/05/ruralaffairs |title= The bizarre revival of crop circles – and advice on how to make your own |newspaper= The Guardian |date= 5 June 2009}}</ref><ref name="nickell1996">{{cite journal |author= Joe Nickell |author-link= Joe Nickell |journal= ] |date= June 1996 |volume= 6 |issue= 2 |url= http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research |title= Levengood's crop-circle plant research |ref= {{harvid|Nickell|1996}} |access-date= 31 March 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100309051544/http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research/ |archive-date= 9 March 2010 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref name="levengood1994">{{cite journal|author=W.C. Levengood |year=1994 |url=http://icircle.home.xs4all.nl/dcircles/Levengood_Physiologia.htm |title=Anatomical anomalies in crop formation plants |journal=] |volume=92 |pages=356–63 |issn=0031-9317 |doi=10.1111/j.1399-3054.1994.tb05348.x |issue=2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128201931/http://icircle.home.xs4all.nl/dcircles/Levengood_Physiologia.htm |archive-date=28 January 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Krismantari">{{cite news|author=Ika Krismantari |url=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/6/focus/7978671&sec=focus |title=Crop circles provide food for thought |newspaper=] |date=6 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030122405/http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2011%2F2%2F6%2Ffocus%2F7978671&sec=focus |archive-date=30 October 2012 }}</ref> No credible evidence of extraterrestrial origin has been presented.

==== Changes to crops ====
A small number of scientists (physicist Eltjo Haselhoff, the late<!--described as semi-retired by csicop source--> biophysicist William Levengood) have claimed to observe differences between the crops inside the circles and outside them, citing this as evidence they were not man made.<ref name="Taylor2011" /><ref name="csicop" /> Levengood published papers in journal '']'' in 1994<ref name="levengood1994" /> and 1999.<ref name="levengood1999">{{cite journal |author1= W.C. Levengood |author2= Nancy P. Talbott |s2cid= 67753725 |year= 1999 |title= Dispersion of energies in worldwide crop formations |journal= Physiologia Plantarum |volume= 105 |issue= 4 |pages= 615–24 |doi=10.1034/j.1399-3054.1999.105404.x}}</ref> In his 1994 paper he found that certain deformities in the grain inside the circles were correlated to the position of the grain inside the circle.<ref name="csicop" />

In 1996, ] objected that ],<ref name="csicop" /> raising several objections to Levengood's methods and assumptions,<ref name="nickell1996" /> and said, "Until his work is independently replicated by qualified scientists doing 'double-blind' studies and otherwise following stringent scientific protocols, there seems no need to take seriously the many dubious claims that Levengood makes, including his similar ones involving plants at alleged ']' sites." Nickell also criticised Levengood for using circular logic, stating: "There is, in fact, no satisfactory evidence that a single “genuine” (i.e., vortex-produced) crop-circle exists, so Levengood’s reasoning is circular: Although there are no guaranteed genuine formations on which to conduct research, the research supposedly proves the genuineness of the formations."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100309051544/http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/levengoods_crop-circle_plant_research/ | archive-date=9 March 2010 | title=Levengood's Crop-Circle Plant Research &#124; Skeptical Inquirer | date=June 1996 }}</ref>

Advocates of non-human causes discount on-site evidence of human involvement as attempts to discredit the phenomena.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|pages=143–145}} When Ridley wrote negative articles in newspapers, he was accused of spreading "government disinformation" and of working for the UK military intelligence service ].<ref name="Ridley" /> Ridley responded by noting that many "cereologists" make good livings from selling books and providing high-priced personal tours through crop fields, and he claimed that they have vested interests in rejecting what is by far the most likely explanation for the circles.<ref name="Ridley" /><ref name="Ridley WSJ">{{cite news |last=Ridley |first=Matt |date=4 June 2011 |title=Houdini, crop circles and the need to believe |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303657404576357462969207014 |newspaper=]}}</ref>

== Related art ==

Patterns similar to crop circles can also be made in snow, by using skis, snow shoes or just walking with ordinary shoes.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210318183137/https://geekologie.com/2013/12/snow-circles-one-mans-winter-crop-circle.php|date=18 March 2021}}, Geekologie, 11 December 2013</ref>

Patterns similar to crop circles can also be made in sand.<ref>, Colin Andrews</ref>

Images can be made in forests by cutting trees, especially in areas with snow. Celebrating the Olympic Games in ], Norway in 1994, a {{Convert|360|m|yd|abbr=on}} tall stylised image of an Olympic torch runner was made in a forest close to one of the arenas.<ref>, Hafjell Resort</ref>

== Folklore ==
]"]]
Researchers of crop circles have linked modern crop circles to old ] tales to support the claim that they are not artificially produced.<ref name=dutch /> Crop circles are culture dependent: they appear mostly in developed and secularised Western countries where people are receptive to ] beliefs, including Japan, but they do not appear at all in other zones, such as Muslim countries.{{sfn|Margry & Roodenburg|2007|page=152}}

Fungi can cause circular areas of crop to die, probably the origin of tales of "]".<ref name=dutch /> Tales also mention ] many times but never in relation to crop circles.<ref name=dutch />

A 17th-century English ] called the '']'' depicts the ] with a ] mowing (cutting) a circular design in a field of oats. The ] containing the image states that the farmer, disgusted at the wage demanded by his mower for his work, insisted that he would rather have "the devil himself" perform the task. Crop circle researcher Jim Schnabel does not consider this to be a historical precedent for crop circles because the stalks were cut down, not bent.<ref name=dutch /> The circular form indicated to the farmer that it had been caused by the devil.<ref name=dutch />

In the 1948 German story ''Die zwölf Schwäne'' (''The Twelve Swans''), a farmer every morning finds a circular ring of flattened grain in his field. After several attempts, his son sees twelve ], who take off their disguises and dance in the field. Crop rings produced by fungi may have inspired such tales, since folklore considers that these rings are created by dancing wolves or fairies.<ref name=dutch />

== See also ==
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* ]
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* ]
{{div col end}}

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Reflist|group=n}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |author= Delgado, Pat & Andrews, Colin |title= Circular Evidence |location= London |publisher= Guild |year= 1989 |isbn=978-0-933999-95-4}}
* {{Skeptoid|id=4062|number=62 |title= Crop Circle Jerks|date=August 22, 2007}}
* {{Cite book |author1= Glickman, Michael |title= Crop Circles: The Bones of God |publisher= Frog Books |year= 2009 |isbn= 978-1-58394-228-4}}
* {{Cite book |editor= Noyes, Ralph |title= The Crop Circle Enigma: Grounding the Phenomenon in Science, Culture and Metaphysics |location= Bath |publisher= Gateway Books |year= 1990 |isbn= 0-946551-66-9}}
* {{Cite book |author= Schnabel, Jim |title= Round in Circles: Physicists, Poltergeists, Pranksters, and the Secret History of the Cropwatchers |location= Harmondsworth |publisher= Penguin |year= 1993 |isbn= 0-14-017952-6}}
* {{Cite journal |author= Taylor, Richard |year= 2010 |title =The crop circle evolves |journal= Nature |volume= 465 |issue= 7299 |page= 693 |bibcode= 2010Natur.465..693T |doi= 10.1038/465693a |doi-access= free }}
* {{Cite AV media|author= Taylor, Suzanne |title= What On Earth? Inside the Crop Circle Mystery |year= 2011 |type= DVD 81-minute feature |publisher= UBC |asin =B00468JOFE }}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Crop circles}}
* {{Cite book| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvbNzAnQpnA | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/GvbNzAnQpnA| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=Crop Circles'' for large orchestra'' |date=2012|author= Robin, Jean-Baptiste|author-link=Jean-Baptiste Robin }}{{cbignore}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://temporarytemples.co.uk/ |publisher =temporarytemples.co.uk|title=Temporary Temples}} Website with pictures, since 1994, of crop circles in the UK.
* {{Cite book|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZd7EkJEBA8| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/HZd7EkJEBA8| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|title=The Beautiful World of Crop Circles| date=16 January 2015| publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}

{{UFOs}}

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Latest revision as of 10:36, 26 November 2024

Pattern in a crop field "Crop circles" redirects here. For other uses, see Crop circles (disambiguation). For the irrigation method that produces circular fields of crops, see center pivot irrigation.

Aerial view of crop circles in Switzerland

A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the sort of thing done in hoaxes" by Taner Edis, professor of physics at Truman State University.

Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles are suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human causation. In 1991, two hoaxers, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, took credit for having created over 200 crop circles throughout England, in widely-reported interviews. The number of reports of crop circles increased substantially after interviews with them. In the United Kingdom, reported circles are not distributed randomly across the landscape, but appear near roads, areas of medium to dense population, and cultural heritage monuments, such as Stonehenge or Avebury. They usually appear overnight. Nearly half of all crop circles found in the UK in 2003 were located within a 15 km (9.3 mi) radius of the Avebury stone circles.

In contrast to crop circles or crop formations, archaeological remains can cause cropmarks in the fields in the shapes of circles and squares, but these do not appear overnight, and are always in the same places every year.

History

Before the 20th century

A 1678 news pamphlet The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange News Out of Hartfordshire describes a crop whose stalks were cut rather than bent. (see folklore section).

In 1686, an English naturalist, Robert Plot, reported on rings or arcs of mushrooms (see fairy rings) in The Natural History of Stafford-Shire, proposing air flows from the sky as a cause. In 1991, meteorologist Terence Meaden linked this report with modern crop circles, a claim that has been compared with those made by Erich von Däniken.

An 1880 letter to the editor of Nature by amateur scientist John Rand Capron describes how several circles of flattened crops in a field were formed under suspicious circumstances and possibly caused by "cyclonic wind action", stating "as viewed from a distance, circular spots (...) they all presented much the same character, viz, a few standing stalks as a centre, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside there a circular wall of stalks which had not suffered".

20th century

In 1932, archaeologist E. C. Curwen observed four dark rings in a field at Stoughton Down near Chichester, but could examine only one: "a circle in which the barley was 'lodged' or beaten down, while the interior area was very slightly mounded up."

In Fortean Times, David Wood reported that in 1940 he made crop circles near Gloucestershire using ropes.

In 1963, Patrick Moore described a crater in a potato field in Wiltshire that he considered was probably caused by an unknown meteoric body. In nearby wheat fields, there were several circular and elliptical areas where the wheat had been flattened. There was evidence of "spiral flattening". He thought they could be caused by air currents from the impact, since they led towards the crater. Astronomer Hugh Ernest Butler observed similar craters and said they were likely caused by lightning strikes.

During the 1960s, there were many reports of UFO sightings and circular formations in swamp reeds and sugarcane fields in Tully, Queensland, Australia, and in Canada. For example, on 8 August 1967, three circles were found in a field in Duhamel, Alberta, Canada; Department of National Defence investigators concluded that it was artificial but couldn't say who made them or how. The most famous case is the 1966 Tully "saucer nest", when a farmer said he witnessed a saucer-shaped craft rise 9 or 12 m (30 or 40 ft) from a swamp and then fly away. On investigating he found a nearly circular area 10 m (32 ft) long by 8 m (25 ft) wide where the grass was flattened in clockwise curves to water level within the circle, and the reeds had been uprooted from the mud. The local police officer, the Royal Australian Air Force, and the University of Queensland concluded that it was most probably caused by natural causes, like a down draught, a willy-willy (dust devil), or a waterspout. In 1973, G.J. Odgers, Director of Public Relations, Department of Defence (Air Office), wrote to a journalist that the "saucer" was probably debris lifted by a willy-willy.

After the 1960s, there was a surge of UFOlogists in Wiltshire, and there were rumours of "saucer nests" appearing in the area, but they were never photographed. There are other pre-1970s reports of circular formations, especially in Australia and Canada, but they were always simple circles, which could have been caused by whirlwinds.

British pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley reported they started creating crop circles in British cornfields in 1978, inspired by the Tully "saucer nest" case.

The first film to depict a geometric crop circle, in this case created by super-intelligent ants, was the 1974 science-fiction film Phase IV. The film has been cited as a possible inspiration or influence on the pranksters who started this phenomenon.

The majority of reports of crop circles have appeared and spread since the late 1970s as many circles began appearing throughout the English countryside. This phenomenon became widely known in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire. After Bower and Chorley gave interviews in 1991 about how they had made crop circles, circles started appearing all over the world. By 2001, approximately 10,000 crop circles have been reported internationally, from locations such as the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, the U.S., and Canada. Researchers have noted a correlation between crop circles, recent media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or anti-trespassing legislation.

Although farmers expressed concern at the damage caused to their crops, local response to the appearance of crop circles was often enthusiastic, with locals taking advantage of the increase of tourism and visits from scientists, crop circle researchers, and individuals seeking spiritual experiences. The market for crop circle interest consequently generated bus or helicopter tours of circle sites, walking tours, T-shirts, and book sales.

21st century

Since the start of the 21st century, crop formations have increased in size and complexity, with some featuring as many as 2,000 different shapes and some incorporating complex mathematical and scientific characteristics.

The researcher Jeremy Northcote found that crop circles in the UK in 2002 were not spread randomly across the landscape. They tended to appear near roads, areas of medium-to-dense population, and cultural heritage monuments such as Stonehenge or Avebury. He found that they always appeared in areas that were easy to access. This suggests strongly that these crop circles were more likely to be caused by intentional human action than by paranormal activity. Another strong indication of that theory was that inhabitants of the zone with the most circles had a historical tendency for making large-scale formations, including stone circles such as Stonehenge, earthen mounds such as Silbury Hill, long barrows such as West Kennet Long Barrow, and white horses in chalk hills.

Bower and Chorley

In 1991, two self-professed pranksters, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, made headlines by saying they had started the crop circle phenomenon in 1978, using simple tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in straight lines. To prove their case they made a circle in front of journalists; a "cereologist" (advocate of paranormal explanations of crop circles), Pat Delgado, examined the circle and declared it authentic before it was revealed that it was a hoax.

Inspired by Australian crop circle accounts from 1966, Bower and Chorley claimed to be responsible for all circles made prior to 1987, and for more than 200 crop circles in 1978–1991 (with 1,000 other circles not being made by them). Writing in Physics World, Richard Taylor of the University of Oregon said that "the pictographs they created inspired a second wave of crop artists. Far from fizzling out, crop circles have evolved into an international phenomenon, with hundreds of sophisticated pictographs now appearing annually around the globe."

Art and business

After reports of simple circles in the 1970s, increasingly complex geometric designs have been created by anonymous artists, in some cases to attract tourists to an area.

Since the early 1990s, the UK arts collective Circlemakers, founded by Rod Dickinson and John Lundberg, and subsequently including Wil Russell and Rob Irving, has been creating crop circles in the UK and around the world as part of its art practice and also for commercial clients.

The Led Zeppelin Boxed Set that was released on 7 September 1990, along with the remasters of the first boxed set, as well as the second boxed set, all feature an image of a crop circle that appeared in East Field in Alton Barnes, Wiltshire.

Aerial view of a crop circle in Diessenhofen

On the night of 11–12 July 1992, a crop-circle-making competition with a prize of £3,000 (funded in part by the Arthur Koestler Foundation) was held in Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by three Westland Helicopters engineers, using rope, PVC pipe, a plank, string, a telescopic device and two stepladders. According to Rupert Sheldrake, the competition was organised by him and John Michell and "co-sponsored by The Guardian and The Cerealogist". The prize money came from PM, a German magazine. Sheldrake wrote that "The experiment was conclusive. Humans could indeed make all the features of state-of-the-art crop formations at that time. Eleven of the twelve teams made more or less impressive formations that followed the set design."

In 2002, Discovery Channel commissioned five aeronautics and astronautics graduate students from MIT to create crop circles of their own, aiming to duplicate some of the features claimed to distinguish "real" crop circles from the known fakes such as those created by Bower and Chorley. The creation of the circle was recorded and used in the Discovery Channel documentary Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields.

In 2009, The Guardian reported that crop circle activity had been waning around Wiltshire, in part because makers preferred creating promotional crop circles for companies that paid well for their efforts.

A video sequence used in connection with the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London showed two crop circles in the shape of the Olympic rings. Another Olympic crop circle was visible to passengers landing at nearby Heathrow Airport before and during the Games.

A 3 ha (7 acres) crop circle depicting the emblem of the Star Wars Rebel Alliance was created in California in December 2017 by a father and his 11-year-old son as a spaceport for X-wing fighters.

Legal implications

In 1992, Gábor Takács and Róbert Dallos, both then aged 17, were the first people to face legal action after creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St. Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary specializing in agriculture, created a 36 m (118 ft) diameter crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 69 km (43 mi) southwest of Budapest, on 8 June 1992. In September, the pair appeared on Hungarian TV and exposed the circle as a hoax, showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made. As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the teens for 630,000 Ft (~$3,000 USD) in damages. The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible for the damage caused in the circle itself, amounting to about 6,000 Ft (~$30 USD), and that 99% of the damage to the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors who flocked to Székesfehérvár following the media's promotion of the circle. The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the students' legal fees.

In 2000, Matthew Williams became the first man in the UK to be arrested for causing criminal damage after making a crop circle near Devizes. In November 2000, he was fined £100 plus £40 in costs. As of 2008, no one else has been successfully prosecuted in the UK for criminal damage caused by creating crop circles.

Creation

Detail of a crop circle in a field in Switzerland

Human origin

The scientific consensus on crop circles is that they are constructed by human beings as hoaxes, advertising, or art. The most widely known method for a person or group to construct a crop formation is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point and the other end to a board which is used to crush the plants. It is also possible to bend grass without breaking it, if it has recently rained—a method that was used to create crop circles in Hungary in 1992. Skeptics of the paranormal point out that all characteristics of crop circles are fully compatible with their being made by hoaxers.

Bower and Chorley confessed in 1991 to making the first crop circles in southern England. When some people refused to believe them, they deliberately added straight lines and squares to show that they could not have natural causes. In a copycat effect, increasingly complex circles started appearing in many countries around the world, including fractal figures. Physicists have suggested that the most complex formations might be made with the help of GPS and lasers. In 2009, a circle formation was made over the course of three consecutive nights and was apparently left unfinished, with some half-made circles.

The main criticism of alleged non-human creation of crop circles is that while evidence of these origins, besides eyewitness testimonies, is absent, many are definitely known to be the work of human pranksters, and others can be adequately explained as such. There have been cases in which researchers declared crop circles to be "the real thing", only to be confronted with the people who created the circle and documented the fraud, like Bower and Chorley and tabloid Today hoaxing Pat Delgado, the Wessex Sceptics and Channel 4's Equinox hoaxing Terence Meaden, or a friend of a Canadian farmer hoaxing a field researcher of the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network. In his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan concludes that crop circles were created by Bower and Chorley and their copycats, and speculates that UFOlogists willingly ignore the evidence for hoaxing so they can keep believing in an extraterrestrial origin of the circles. Many others have demonstrated how complex crop circles can be created. Scientific American published an article by Matt Ridley, who started making crop circles in northern England in 1991. He wrote about how easy it is to develop techniques using simple tools that can easily fool later observers. He reported on "expert" sources such as The Wall Street Journal who had been easily fooled, and mused about why people want to believe supernatural explanations for phenomena that are not yet explained. Methods of creating a crop circle are now well documented on the Internet.

Some crop formations are paid for by companies who use them as advertising. Many crop circles show human symbols, like the heart and arrow symbol of love, and stereotyped alien faces.

Hoaxers have been caught in the process of making new circles, such as in 2004 in the Netherlands

Natural origins

Weather

It has been suggested that crop circles may be the result of extraordinary meteorological phenomena ranging from freak tornadoes to ball lightning, but there is no evidence of any crop circle being created by any of these causes.

In 1880, an amateur scientist, John Rand Capron, wrote a letter to the editor of journal Nature about some circles in crops and blamed them on a recent storm, saying their shape was "suggestive of some cyclonic wind action".

In 1980, Terence Meaden, a meteorologist and physicist, proposed that the circles were caused by whirlwinds whose course was affected by southern England hills. As circles became more complex, Terence had to create increasingly complex theories, blaming an electromagneto-hydrodynamic "plasma vortex". The meteorological theory became popular, and it was even referenced in 1991 by physicist Stephen Hawking who said that, "Corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air". The weather theory suffered a serious blow in 1991, but Hawking's point about hoaxes was supported when Bower and Chorley stated that they had been responsible for making all those circles. By the end of 1991 Meaden conceded that those circles that had complex designs were made by hoaxers.

Animal activity

In 2009, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania stated that Australian wallabies had been found creating crop circles in fields of opium poppies, which are grown legally for medicinal use, after consuming some of the opiate-laden poppies and running in circles.

Alternative explanations

In science magazines from the 1980s and 1990s, for example Science Illustrated, one could read reports suggesting that the plants were bent by something that could be microwave radiation, rather than broken by physical impact. The magazines also contained serious reports of the absence of human influence and measurement of unusual radiation. Today, this is considered to be pseudoscience, while at the time it was subject of serious research. At that time, it was also more likely that an unknown factor was behind the incidents, not least seen in light of the fact that GPS was not available to the public.

Paranormal

Sketch of a "spaceship" creating crop circles, sent to UK Ministry of Defence circa 1998

Since becoming the focus of widespread media attention in the 1980s, crop circles have been the subject of speculation by various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic investigators, ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre meteorological phenomena to messages from extraterrestrial beings. There has also been speculation that crop circles have a relation to ley lines.

Some paranormal advocates think that crop circles are caused by ball lightning and that the patterns are so complex that they have to be controlled by some entity. Some proposed entities are: Gaia asking to stop global warming and human pollution; God; supernatural beings (for example Indian devas); the collective minds of humanity through a proposed "quantum field"; and extraterrestrial beings.

Responding to local beliefs that "extraterrestrial beings" in UFOs were responsible for crop circles appearing, the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) described crop circles as "man-made". Thomas Djamaluddin [id], research professor of astronomy and astrophysics at LAPAN stated, "We have come to agree that this 'thing' cannot be scientifically proven." Among others, paranormal enthusiasts, ufologists, and anomalistic investigators have offered hypothetical explanations that have been criticised as pseudoscientific by sceptical groups and scientists, including the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. No credible evidence of extraterrestrial origin has been presented.

Changes to crops

A small number of scientists (physicist Eltjo Haselhoff, the late biophysicist William Levengood) have claimed to observe differences between the crops inside the circles and outside them, citing this as evidence they were not man made. Levengood published papers in journal Physiologia Plantarum in 1994 and 1999. In his 1994 paper he found that certain deformities in the grain inside the circles were correlated to the position of the grain inside the circle.

In 1996, Joe Nickell objected that correlation is not causation, raising several objections to Levengood's methods and assumptions, and said, "Until his work is independently replicated by qualified scientists doing 'double-blind' studies and otherwise following stringent scientific protocols, there seems no need to take seriously the many dubious claims that Levengood makes, including his similar ones involving plants at alleged 'cattle mutilation' sites." Nickell also criticised Levengood for using circular logic, stating: "There is, in fact, no satisfactory evidence that a single “genuine” (i.e., vortex-produced) crop-circle exists, so Levengood’s reasoning is circular: Although there are no guaranteed genuine formations on which to conduct research, the research supposedly proves the genuineness of the formations."

Advocates of non-human causes discount on-site evidence of human involvement as attempts to discredit the phenomena. When Ridley wrote negative articles in newspapers, he was accused of spreading "government disinformation" and of working for the UK military intelligence service MI5. Ridley responded by noting that many "cereologists" make good livings from selling books and providing high-priced personal tours through crop fields, and he claimed that they have vested interests in rejecting what is by far the most likely explanation for the circles.

Related art

Patterns similar to crop circles can also be made in snow, by using skis, snow shoes or just walking with ordinary shoes.

Patterns similar to crop circles can also be made in sand.

Images can be made in forests by cutting trees, especially in areas with snow. Celebrating the Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994, a 360 m (390 yd) tall stylised image of an Olympic torch runner was made in a forest close to one of the arenas.

Folklore

1678 pamphlet on the "Mowing-Devil"

Researchers of crop circles have linked modern crop circles to old folkloric tales to support the claim that they are not artificially produced. Crop circles are culture dependent: they appear mostly in developed and secularised Western countries where people are receptive to New Age beliefs, including Japan, but they do not appear at all in other zones, such as Muslim countries.

Fungi can cause circular areas of crop to die, probably the origin of tales of "fairie rings". Tales also mention balls of light many times but never in relation to crop circles.

A 17th-century English woodcut called the Mowing-Devil depicts the devil with a scythe mowing (cutting) a circular design in a field of oats. The pamphlet containing the image states that the farmer, disgusted at the wage demanded by his mower for his work, insisted that he would rather have "the devil himself" perform the task. Crop circle researcher Jim Schnabel does not consider this to be a historical precedent for crop circles because the stalks were cut down, not bent. The circular form indicated to the farmer that it had been caused by the devil.

In the 1948 German story Die zwölf Schwäne (The Twelve Swans), a farmer every morning finds a circular ring of flattened grain in his field. After several attempts, his son sees twelve princesses disguised as swans, who take off their disguises and dance in the field. Crop rings produced by fungi may have inspired such tales, since folklore considers that these rings are created by dancing wolves or fairies.

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. Keving Greene wrote,

    The difficulties that exist in communicating the results of archaeology have undoubtedly contributed to the flourishing of writers, such as Erich von Däniken, who take a particular delight in deriding the inability of 'experts' to find explanations that seize the imagination of the public. (...) Few archaeologists have sold as many paperbacks as von Däniken; more recently, a meteorologist who linked crop circles to prehistoric ring-ditches or round barrows generated a reaction that no orthodox student of these monuments has ever achieved (Meaden 1991)

  2. ^ John Rand Capron wrote,

    The storms about this part of Surrey have been lately local and violent, and the effects produced in some instances curious. Visiting a neighbour's farm on Wednesday evening (21st), 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 (...) they all presented much the same character, viz, a few standing stalks as a centre, some prostrate stalks with their heads arranged pretty evenly in a direction forming a circle round the centre, and outside there a circular wall of stalks which had not suffered. (...) I could not trace locally any circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the patches in the field, nor indicating whether it was wind or rain, or both combined, which had caused them, beyond the general evidence everywhere of heavy rainfall. They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic wind action, and may perhaps have been noticed elsewhere by some of your readers.

  3. ^ In a newspaper article Lewis Cohen wrote, "Williams is probably best known as the only person in the UK to be successfully prosecuted for making crop circles. He has since made a name for himself creating crop circles for TV companies and commercial firms..."
  4. The website Crop Circle Research.com described one formation stating, "It looks reminiscent of a fake dummy constructed by 'Balok' in a Star Trek episode called 'Corbomite Manourvre' [sic] (series 1)' or the logo of local soccer club Feyenoord".
  5. In a Physics World article Richard Taylor wrote, "Today, with the benefit of hindsight, such explanations sound rather contrived. At the height of the debate, though, no less a physicist than Stephen Hawking was prepared to accept some version of Meaden's theory. When a spate of circles appeared in the countryside near his Cambridge home in 1991, Hawking told a local newspaper that "crop circles are either hoaxes or formed by vortex movement of air"

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