Farceurs et faussaires

A LITTLE WRECKING JOB AMONG FRIENDS — THE FIRST OF THE 2010 SEASON
This page marked the start of the 2010 crop-circle season in England. As every year, Culture-crop.com focused on reporting not only images but, above all, what was observed on the ground — where the essentials play out. Aerial photographs are appealing, but they often hide what stems, soil and human-height details reveal.

The phenomenon was many-sided: some saw messages from elsewhere, others a playground for circle-makers with varied motives — insider challenges, commercial commissions, or the urge to muddy the waters in case something authentic occurred. Amid this flurry, mechanical traces noted on site — kinks, fractures, broken stems — often pointed to a human origin. That did not remove the interest of the few formations where such clues were absent, but it did require elimination rather than belief.

Each year’s first crop circle acted like a starting signal. With it came the questions: what would the season bring? Which collective fears or hopes would be mirrored by these figures? Recent history showed that circles reflected both the anxieties of an era and the myths that animated it.

In May 2010, everything began under the sign of Old Sarum, “The First.” Caution was needed: to distinguish what was relevant, what only half was, and what misled. The rest — fascination or scepticism — would always tag along, because that too keeps the phenomenon alive.

OILSEED RAPE DOSSIER — Other photo galleries of oilseed rape formations made with boards