What happened
In July 1990, in a wheat field near the village of Alton Barnes in Wiltshire, close to a hill with a White Horse cut into the chalk, a formation appeared that was unlike the simple circles seen before. It was more than 100 meters long and consisted of several circles connected by straight bars, along with elements resembling keys. Tourists, crop circle researchers, and TV crews flocked to the field, and photographs appeared in newspapers around the world. An image of the East Field formation was also used on the cover of a Led Zeppelin box set released in the fall of 1990. The formation ushered in the era of “pictograms” – increasingly complex designs in which enthusiasts saw messages.
Witnesses
The formation was viewed and photographed from the air by numerous tourists, crop circle researchers, and journalists; no one reported seeing it being made.
Explanations and hypotheses
There is no documented claim of authorship for this formation, but there is also no evidence of an unusual origin. A year later, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley showed how easy it was to make a circle with a plank and a piece of rope, and artists from groups such as the Circlemakers later produced many far more complex designs. Science holds that all crop circles examined are consistent with human manufacture.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.