CROP CIRCLES IN 1999

Image by  Peter Sorensen's Homepage

THE LAST CROP FORMATION OF THE MILLENNIUM
 by Peter Sorensen

Ulrich flew over Avebury this morning, where he found an attractive, 150-foot formation, with 8-fold geometry, in the field bordering the NW quadrant of the henge. There is a "signature" not far away that is the Greek letter Pi - the essence of circle-ness, of course.

The 90-foot centre circle has a bird's nest in the middle, which spirals out for a few feet, overlapping a radial lay, which in turn overlaps a clockwise lay that completes that circle.

(Click to enlarge)

Image by  Peter Sorensen's Homepage

Each of the eight medium size circles has a different lay, ranging from the conventional, to S-swirl, to a sort of bizarre, spiral snake. These circles are each crowned with a small crescent, and (counting the ones inside the crescents) eight grapeshot adorn all of the eight "branches."

My wide shot is heavily "Photo-shopped," but the close-up is not altered at all.

Report by Peter Sorensen.

Images Stuart Dike Copyright 2000

Click on thumbnails to enlarge

This formation is now regarded as the last event of the season. As I write this report, we have not received anymore news of further formations in the area, or across the country. Maybe in the coming weeks, we may receive earlier reports of formations already cut?

The field in question here is tucked away from the main farming fields around the Stone Circle. Its shrouded in trees, which may have had a bearing on why it was left so late to be harvested, possibly due to the light? However, it has always been a fascinating field to be targeted by the Circlemakers, and is indeed the very first time to be hit.

On our arrival at the site, we were very luckily to arrive on the very same day; the new archaeological discoveries were to be presented to the public at the long stones, about a mile away to our west. So we decided to carry out our investigation after we visited the Long Stones. (A description of these findings will be included in my end report on the 1999 season)

So this was our very last formation to visit for the 1999 season. Quite sad in one way, but also maybe a sigh of relief in another, because of such a long and exhausting season behind us, some five months of reporting, which is a very long season to be involved in.

We entered the field from the entrance to Avebury Manor, and we immediately realized that the crop was due to be cut any minute, possibly the same time we were there? It was positioned directly in the centre of the field, some 60 yards from the main road. Unfortunately it was a few days old now, and quite a number of visitors had already been in. However, there were still some very interesting details to be note on the floor construction of the surrounding circles. The central section of crop in the main centre circle was very interesting. This splayed pattern, is possibly an indication of further techniques in creating circles, and also the wonderful snaking trail of crop on some of the outer circles? These features reminded me of the circles created on the famous BASKET formation at Bishop Cannings, which was criminally cut out by a small minded Farmer. The question, which I am raising here, is that we may have a further indication to how may see the 2000 crop circles. The three-dimensional feel to the floor construction is also shown in this formation, which I believe is the progression of 1999 season.

We will have to wait and see, but I feel that we shouldn’t be too disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to experienced the Basket, as I believe it will happen again in 2000!

It was quite fitting that the harvester started to enter the field, as I was just about to finish my photography. "I was right " I said, as I started to exit the field, it was a tribute to what has become one of the most memorable seasons of the nineties, and one of the greatest yet! 

Report by Stuart Dike

(Click to enlarge)

Eight-Fold Pi formation

The eight-fold formation that appeared with a Pi "signature" next to it at Avebury on September 1st this year (1999), is the latest English crop formation of any season in my experience. And, to my knowledge it is the last one of the Millennium! Several of its nine major circles also had very peculiar lays, including raised, snake-like coils that could be clearly seen from the air.

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Medium Close-Up of Eight-Fold Pi formation

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I visited it the next day with Ulrich Kox, the German researcher who had taken aerial shots of it for me with my video camera on the first morning. The formation had occurred in one of the very last fields still standing, and the wheat, past due for harvesting, was shabby, with its ears bent down, and readily released seeds if rubbed gently between the fingers. There were also some small bald patches which added to its dishevelled appearance. Yet the lay was every bit as amazing as we expected!

Close-Up of "Coiled
Snake"

Medium Shot of "Coiled Snake"

Wide Shot of "Coiled
Snake"

The unique "snakes" were formed by narrow arcs of crop which was bent (crimped) over as high as a foot above the ground, and therefore a good eight inches above the more normally flattened crop that surrounded them. The term, snake, was coined because one of them (lower left on medium-close aerial shot) suggested a loosely coiled serpent, but on the ground they defied comparison to anything. They were curved, puffy bands  which went down much higher than the surrounding lay.  Virtually every large circle in the formation had them, but only a few were dramatic. 

Centre Circle Showing Concentric and Radial Lays 

(Click to enlarge)

Equally remarkable was the lay of the central circle, which consisted of three distinct different flows.  The very centre was a small, ordinary clockwise swirl with a "bird's nest" in the middle. There had been a clump of standing stalks inside the nest, but these had been cleanly cut off a few inches from the ground  - probably taken by someone sampling the crop. This central swirl overlapped a radial lay that went out about 10 feet before it, in turn, overlapped a clockwise, concentric lay. (The radial and concentric flows are distinct in the aerial shot, but the little central swirl is barely recognizable.) I have never heard of combined radial and concentric flattening - have you? Radial is rare enough!

Pole shot of Pi 

(Click to enlarge)

The Greek Pi symbol was a controversial feature.  Suggestive of a signature, some croppies have rejected the entire formation because of it, while others believe it was merely added by an early visitor.  Still others are adamant that it was/is very important. At least two dowsers found positive results.

Charles and Frances Mallet reported that the tapering point at the right end of the Pi's curvy, horizontal stroke, had a very thin (2 or 3 inch-wide) line meandering off and out into the standing crop for well over a hundred feet. Amazingly, it was crimped down just a few inches below the ears of wheat - not at the bottom of the stalks! Unfortunately, no one took an aerial close-up of the Pi, although one of my pole shots shows the horizontal stroke tapering to fine point, and there appears to be a line going straight off from it a ways. 

When Charley tried to photograph it, his camera failed. He was surprised, not only because his camera had never had a problem before, but because it was a very old, mechanical camera with no electronics in it. Assuming it had simply decided to break down after all these years, he was taken aback when he thought to test it with a shot of the formation from the roadside, and it worked perfectly. His curiosity peaked, he went back into the circle, and, classically, the camera again failed - only to behave when he returned to the road. [If anyone has a photo of the mysterious line or an aerial close-up of the Pi, please contact me or the Crop Circle Connector! I would also like to hear reports of other unusual features or experiences.

The formation may not quite qualify as a Grand Finale, but it is a fascinating finale - for the year, AND the Millennium.  

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