Complex Pictograms

 In the 1980s, crop circles began to appear—especially in southern England, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and Japan. Year after year, the phenomenon became more widespread and complex. By the early 1980s, only circles ranging in size from the diameter of a wagon wheel to the diameter of a circus arena were found. Sometimes, these circles formed very interesting patterns.

The first circles discovered consisted of simple circular depressions, later ones had rings around them, and there were also some composed of rings only. Some were symmetrically arranged, others consisted of a single large circle around which "satellites" orbited. In the late 1980s, unusual pictographs were discovered – for example, mysterious markings on the ground in the Nazca region (Peru – images above). Perhaps the most unusual of all patterns was the so-called "Mandelbrot set," found in August 1991 in Ickleton, 16 km west of Cambridge, which closely resembled a graphic pattern of the then-popular mathematical theory of chaos. It was suspected that the set was a hoax, but the wheat ears were arranged in characteristic braids that certainly could not have been plaited with such precision by humans.

As more patterns were discovered, speculation about their origins grew. Those who believed the formation of the circles could be traced to paranormal phenomena boldly argued their case, but most researchers remained skeptical. Regardless of the hypotheses, everyone wondered how to explain the appearance of increasingly complex circles.