“These current formations probably would be considered
the most elaborate and geometrically sophisticated oilseed rape/canola
formations that have occurred in British crop circle history, I would say.” 
- Charles Mallett, Silent Circle Information Center, Calne, U.K.

Silbury Hill in background of June 9, 2008, “eclipse counter” compared by Australian scientist
to April 19, 2009, “eclipse counter” at the West Kennett Longbarrow near Silbury Hill.
His calculations are in red about the number of weeks the crop glyphs count off between eclipses.

 

April 30, 2009  Wiltshire, England -  Between April 14 and April 29, 2009, there have been six crop formations reported in oilseed rape in Wiltshire County, England. Five are described as “the most elaborate and geometrically sophisticated oilseed rape formations that have occurred in British crop circle history.” 

Those words were said to me earlier this week by long-time crop formation researcher Charles Mallett, who runs the Silent Circle Information Center in Calne west of Avebury. A recent formation reported in the Liddington Castle region is so hard to find that no one knows for sure when it formed and only two ground photographs have been shared so far.

 

April 25, 2009, Liddington Castle
near Chiseldon, Wiltshire

Dene Hine sent the Cropcircleconnector this note after an April 25, excursion trying to find a rumored new formation:  “After 3 hours of hunting in the field up and down the tramlines, I came across the circle that I was told about. Got totally rained on in the flash storms. This is not visible anywhere near the road. It must be visible from the top of the hill only. It's a small formation that contained 4 circles, 2 outlined and 2 solid, joined by lines. I would say the whole formation would be under 100 feet.”

Above 4-circle pattern in flowering oilseed rape at Liddington Castle
near Chiseldon, Wiltshire, England, on April 25, 2009. Images © 2009 by Dene Hine.

 

April 29, 2009, Roundway Hill
Southwest of Avebury Stone Circles

But Charles Mallett got into the sixth reported yesterday, April 29, at Roundway Hill southwest of the ancient Avebury stone circles. This morning by phone, Charles told me that this brand new formation is also impossible to see from the ground because it is right on top of Roundway Hill and can only be seen from the air. In fact, it was spotted from an airplane early on the morning of April 29, and eyewitnesses assume it was made that night. The beautiful pattern is 230 feet in diameter and has 18 arcs swirling from a center made of five rings around a small flattened circle, 15 feet in diameter.

Sixth oilseed rape formation at Roundway Hill near Devizes,
Wiltshire, reported April 29, 2009. Aerial images above and below
© 2009 by Nick Nicholson. Also see: Cropcircleconnector.com.

Yellow, flowering oilseed rape (canola) is one of the most difficult crops in the world to move in. Some varieties grow five to six feet tall and others three feet high. Blooming oilseed rape is thick and tangles around legs. The yellow pollen puffs off in clouds, leaving green trails of disturbance where people have walked. Yet, the first three 2009 crop formations reported in Wiltshire, England, between April 14 and April 24, were all precise, intricate patterns in blooming, oilseed rape. The third one, a sunburst pattern, stunned Silent Circle researcher, Charles Mallett, when his tape measure showed the longest length to be 298 feet, the size of a football field.

Then the next day on April 24, came the extraordinary fourth pattern at Morgan's Hill southwest of Avebury. No one can recall seeing such a large, precise triangular pattern made up of seven circles and three near-half-circles in which the 5-foot-tall Morgan's Hill plants were laid down without a crease or break in their crisp stems.

 

The “megalithic sundial” near the Ridgeway one mile east of the ancient double
stone circle of Avebury, reported on April 14, 2009, measured 118 feet
in diameter. Aerial image © 2009 by Lucy Pringle.
Also see:  Cropcircleconnector.com.


Central Mayan-like symbol for “seasons” or “sun” reported April 19, 2009, at the
West Kennett Longbarrow, near Avebury, Wiltshire, measured 211 feet in diameter,
not far from the first U. K. crop formation reported April 14, 2009. Image © 2009
by Philippe Ullens. Also see: Cropcircleconnector.com.


“Sunburst” in yellow, flowering, oilseed rape was reported
April 23, 2009. Its longest length was 298 feet with 66-foot-diameter central circle,
a half-mile northeast of the ancient double stone circles of Avebury.
Aerial image © 2009 by Russell Stannard. Also see: Cropcircleconnector.com.

7-circle triangle in 5-foot-high yellow, flowering, oilseed rape
was reported April 24, 2009, at Morgan's Hill southwest of Avebury.
Larger than a football field, it measured 308 feet in diameter.
Aerial image © 2009 by Nick Nicholson.   See: Cropcircleconnector.com


Blue circles indicate sites of first April 14 - 29, 2009, crop formations in yellow,
blooming oilseed rape. Top blue circle marks first 2009 U. K. formation near The Ridgeway
one mile east of Avebury. Then came the West Kennett Longbarrow;
Rutland's Farm a half-mile northeast of the Avebury double stone
circles; Morgan's Hill southwest of Avebury; Roundway Hill near Devizes.
The fifth one at Liddington Castle is north off the map.

Charles Mallett has been examining plants and soils in patterns since the mid-1990s. After the first four amazing formations had turned up in only ten days, I phoned him to find out what his experienced mind and eyes were seeing.

---

Interview:

Charles R. Mallett, Silent Circle Information Center, Calne, Wiltshire, England:  “These current formations would probably be considered the most elaborate and geometrically sophisticated oilseed rape/canola formations that have occurred in British crop circle history, I would say. Right now in April 2009, we've had really huge, serious formations! This has never really  happened before - kind of unprecedented.

BASED ON YOUR EXPERIENCES TRYING TO MOVE IN AND OUT OF OILSEED RAPE, WHETHER IT IS THE TALL 6-FOOT VARIETY OR THE HYBRID THAT IS LOWER, CAN YOU DESCRIBE FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO WORK IN AND MOVE THROUGH OILSEED RAPE?

These are thick, heavy, succulent stems that contain a lot of water that the average diameter of the stem is probably half to three-quarters of an inch – more like three-quarters at full maturity. So, they are very stiff and brittle plants. If you walk out into the fields, it tends to tangle around your legs. You get pollen – you walk out of the fields covered in yellow with pollen all over you as you sneeze! Not a nice medium to be in.

Considering the logistics and the problems with laying down a large, coherent pattern in that kind of crop, it would be a lot more difficult in oilseed rape than it would be in wheat or barley. The formations that have appeared so far this year, they are pretty sophisticated large, elaborate designs.

 

1)  April 14, 2009, Ridgeway near Avebury. Diameter 118 feet.

Even in the smaller, first one over east of Avebury, it’s pretty difficult to even see what it is on the ground because these plants are still relatively young. The plants spring back up pretty quickly unless they are crushed to the ground, which will obviously kill the plants. So, you’re walking around in a pattern, which is very vague on the ground. The patterns show up well from the air, but in the formation over at  Avebury from April 14, probably 60% to 70% of the crop was bolt upright. The rest was semi-laid down, somewhat upright. So, it was hard to discern the actual nature of the pattern where it started and finished in places.  And in many areas where visitors had not walked, I found many plants down flat to the ground without a break or crease.

Above: Rings created in flowering oilseed rape by putting down thin rows
of plants to separate standing crop, “without a break or crease.” Below: Right side
of image are standing oilseed plants; on left side a thin row of plants were put down
without breaking. Images © 2009 by Charles Mallett, Silent Circle Information Center.




Diagram of April 14, 2009, Ridgeway
oilseed rape formation 118 feet in diameter
© 2009 by Andreas Mueller.

 

Is Ridgeway A “Megalithic Sundial”?

On April 17, 2009, I received the following email with attached illustrations from the Australian scientist who has been collaborating with Italian crop researcher, Marina Sassi, and American astrophysicist, Mike Reed, who discovered the ratcheted spiral counting out Pi to ten decimal places last year at Barbury Castle. [ 060808See Earthfiles in Archive. ]

Subject: Ridgeway as a megaltihc sundial from Qumran or Italy
Date: April 17, 2009
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com

“Ridgeway of April 14, 2009, resembles a megalithic sundial found at Qumran or in Italy: four years left until the end of 2012.

Quite a few crop pictures have seemed to show yearly sundials; for example, Avebury 2003, Hackpen Hill 2003, Avebury 2005, or Oliver’s Castle 2007.
(See http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/sundials2007b.html )

The first crop picture of 2009 appeared on April 14, at Ridgeway near Avebury. At first its segmented circles seemed obscure, but then Italian researcher, Marina Sassi, noted its close resemblance to a megalithic sundial found in archaeological remains from Qumran in the Middle East:

Upper left:   April 14, 2009, oilseed rape pattern at Ridgeway near Avebury.
Upper right:  Megalithic sundial found at Qumran on the northwest shore of the
Dead Sea in Israel. Lower diagrams show how the megalithic sundial told time.
2009 graphic assembly by Australian scientist and Marina Sassi.

[ Editor's Note:  Wikipedia - “Qumran is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank, just next to the Israeli kibbutz of Kalia. The site was most likely constructed sometime during or before the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BC and saw various phases of occupation until probably after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when Titus and his X Fretensis destroyed it. Qumran is best known as the settlement nearest to the hiding place of the Dead Sea Scrolls buried in desert cliff caves.”]

“A similar megalithic sundial was found also at Monte Bibele near Bologna in Italy.

Ancient megalithic sundial comparisons by Marina Sassi, Italy.

“If the April 14, 2009, Ridgeway oilseed rape formation really is a ‘sundial,’ then various thick lines from that crop picture would seem to mark solar motions along the horizon over twelve months of any year, as the Sun passes through a series of different constellations on the zodiac. The angular breadth of those lines depends on latitude, but match fairly well an expected plus or minus 45 degrees away from due east or west at latitude 51 degrees N in southern England.

Illustration of modern sunwheel observatory created with standing stones
by © Judith Young, Ph.D., Prof. of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts.

“If that Ridgeway crop picture was truly paranormal (and this remains to be determined), then its overall message might be ‘four solar years left until the end of 2012,’ because each of those four thick lines represents one complete motion of our Sun along the horizon, during any twelve-month period.”

 

2)  April 19, 2009, West Kennett Longbarrow near Avebury. Diameter 211 feet.

Charles Mallett:  “Then on April 19, 2009, came the West Kennett Longbarrow pattern at 211 feet wide. That's so big that you’re wading around a long way from the tramlines and it is a thick, tangled, stinking mess, but it looked pretty in the landscape from the West Kennett Longbarrow, which is a very popular tourist site. It’s a very ancient burial site, thousands of years old.

Those kinds of crop, the oilseed rape, they are very delicate with thick, chunky stems, as can be seen in the photographs. But if you even lightly stand on them, the stems smash and break. But again, looking into areas where people had not walked and would not generally walk, there were areas where all of the stems were bent neatly above the ground without breaking. There was no mechanical scrape marks on the stems. That's pretty impossible to reproduce using any kind of physical devices I’m aware of at this time. So, this Longbarrow formation is truly mysterious, as far as I'm concerned.

Center of the 211-foot-diameter oilseed rape pattern, near the ancient
West Kennett Longbarrow across the road from Silbury Hill, matches the Mayan
glyph for “day” and “sun.” Aerial image © 2009 by Lucy Pringle.

Flattened oilseed rape stems inside the West Kennett Longbarrow formation
reported April 19, 2009, without breaks or creases. Image © 2009 by Charles Mallett.

 

Is West Kennett Longbarrow A Solar Eclipse-Counter?

[ Editor's Note:  Mayan k'in glyph for sun -

“In Yucatec and Chol, the languages of the Maya script, k'in means both "day" and "sun." The symbolic k'in sign probably represents a day-blooming flower. It is most commonly encountered in dates: Together with a number, it is a count of days.” Source: Maya Astronomical Glyphs and Symbols.

 

The Australian scientist also found a similar comparison to a pre-Colombian symbol that represented “four seasons” or “Sun” with the four segments inside the circle on a spider.

Illustration provided by Australian scientist.

The Australian scientist points out that Silbury Hill has been the location for several eclipse-related crop formations over the years and he compares calculations he made for a June 9, 2008, pattern with Silbury Hill in the background, and the April 19, 2009, pattern across the road from ancient Silbury Hill and the Avebury double stone circle complex - all of which was involved in tracking lunar and solar eclipses and other astronomical phenomena.

Silbury Hill in background of June 9, 2008, “eclipse counter” compared by Australian scientist
to April 19, 2009, “eclipse counter” at the West Kennett Longbarrow near Silbury Hill.
His calculations are in red about the number of weeks the crop glyphs count off between eclipses.