UK Crop Formations '99

by Joyce L Murphy

The Beyond Boundaries crop formations expedition led by Ruben Uriarte, director of Northern California MUFON, and Joyce Murphy, BB CEO, arrived London Gatwick Airport on August 3rd. Traveling by van the group proceeded immediately to an Alton Barnes, Pewsey Vale area manor home, which had been acquired as expedition headquarters for one week. After connecting with friends and other researchers already in the area it was decided that largest available helicopter would be chartered for a flyover of area formations for the very next day. From past experience the group knew that an assessment from the air would be very informative before going into each formation for investigation at ground level. Expedition members were able to view from the air at least 10 recent formations by helicopter and then began the painstaking ground observations of each formation later the same day.

Since the team was among the first researchers to discover the new West Kennet Long Barrow formation from the air this formation was selected as the first one the group would investigate in the field. West Kennet Long Barrow is one of the largest Neolithic burial tombs in Britain, constructed in 3700 BC, and in continual use for well over 1000 years. The area, a remote part of the Avebury landscape, is very close to the oldest mound in Europe, Silbury Hill, which has overlookied many fantastic formations in the past. It was rumored that a UFO sighting may have been associated with the appearance of this formation, another design of many in the '99 year of the square. The usual perimeter circles on the outside were present in this formation, with a wonderful three-dimensional floor pattern in the middle. The floor pattern was better seen from the sky, with its shadows, than from inside the crop on the ground. And this, our first into the field investigation of '99, is when we learned that the farmers were much more accepting now of the phenomenon than in any previous year. It was said by locals that few farmers this year had any doubt that the real formations were made by other than human hands. The square geometry has been a main feature on the formations of 1999 but several of the formations the Beyond Boundaries team first viewed from the air, and later on the ground, did have the usual circular and triangular geometry - but then, many of them (possibly 60%) were thought to be manmade. Since even the manmade patterns can be considered an artform they were also examined, if for no other reason, to sharpen research skills for determining differences between manmade and real formations.

Another of the many formations also visited at ground level was Devil's Den which appeared the 3rd week of July near another ancient site, some more standing stones. Devil's Den is one of several megalithic monuments that are rarely visited and Avebury seems to be perhaps the center of such megaliths. There is a sign on a nearby gate that can be barely made out to read "Devil's Den 1/2 mile" with very few letters still discernable. And to get there you have to walk through a farm the approximate 1/2 mile before you see the solitary stone monument up ahead in a field which seemed from the air to be almost vital to the formation itself. As you approach the area it is obvious that there were other stones that have long since fallen but were too large to have been hauled out of the field by the farmer. The purpose of such an arrangement of these stone monuments is still debated as is also the method by which they were moved and hoisted on top of one another. Possibly the stones were once covered by an earthern mound?

Many formations this year, will be remembered for their size and complexity, as well as shear beauty, but this design, located well away from the busy A4 road to Marlborough, stands out from the rest because of it's design, position, and location. And besides, the crop formation itself has a prehistoric Dolmen (structure with a large flat stone laid on upright ones) next to it situated on the remote landscape. The design itself is positioned within a slight dip in the field, on a gentle incline. The pattern is only about a 100 feet away from the Dolmen, but is in a direct line along the field. At the time the Beyond Boundaries team visited the location the formation was already a few weeks old but still exhibited the beautiful floor construction and the channels running around the outer perimeter crop indicating a wind tube effect. The many circles inside ran in a clockwise rotation with some of the smaller outer circles not quite a perfect circle shape. The story goes that there was a power failure in the immediate area the night the pattern was formed, which occurred between 11 pm and 1 am, and whether or not this problem was a result of the energies at work here can only be considered.

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