Very early in the 2007 season on April 15, a new crop picture appeared at Oliver's Castle (close to Roundway) in oilseed rape. By current indications, it seems doubtful whether that picture could have been made by human fakers (although the possibility cannot be entirely ruled out, given its fairly simple form and proximity to a minor road).

 

The new crop picture shows a large round "outer disc", with seven curved "waves" passing through it:

 

 

In astronomical terms, the large outer disc could represent either "Sun" or "Earth", while the waves passing through it could represent ordinary light waves (say from the setting Sun), or else something more exotic such as "gravity waves":

 

Quite notably, that new crop picture was drawn on top of a high hill, where rays from the setting Sun would easily illuminate it. Several large trees nearby even cast long shadows onto it late in the afternoon, just as if they were the vertical arm or "gnomon" of a sundial.

 

Could this new picture in fact be meant to represent a "megalithic sundial", like the kind that were built into stone at ancient sites in Ireland or England 5000 years ago? In order to explore that hypothesis, let us ask next where the Sun might set on different days of the year at Oliver's Castle (51 N, 2 W), relative to the angular alignment of that crop picture toward the western horizon?

 

Using Google Earth and tree shadows (having no field measurements), I found that the new crop picture at Oliver's Castle was oriented approximately west-to-east as 270-275 degrees, relative to "wave flow" through its large outer disc. Thus it will next enter into precise alignment with rays from the setting Sun in mid-September 2007, plus or minus a few weeks.

 

Since March 20 (the spring equinox), sunset on the western horizon at Oliver's Castle has been heading north. It will continue to do so until June 21 (the summer solstice) when it will begin to turn south, reaching the autumnal equinox on September 23. Then it will continue southward until December 22 (the winter solstice).

 

Our tilted, spinning Earth intersects different planes of a solar path through the sky ("ecliptic") at different times of the year, and so the precise location of sunset on any western horizon moves periodically with the seasons:

 

 

This particular diagram shows sunrise and sunset for the Southern Hemisphere, because it was taken from "Sundials Australia" by Marg Folkard and John Ward. For the Northern Hemisphere, any seasonal change in the location of sunset would be reversed.

 

Thus, after detailed analysis, we can see how that new crop picture from Oliver's Castle used certain concepts from megalithic astronomy in its design. But what does a true "megalithic sundial" look like? One of the best-known examples may be found at Knowth in Ireland. There a tall stone or gnomon originally cast its shadow at sunset into a narrow western passage of the structure on either equinox (approximately March 20 or September 23):

 

 

The western passage at Knowth actually has an alignment of 259 degrees rather than 270, perhaps since seasons were of different length in 3200 BC when it was built. In any case, light from the setting Sun still enters that western passage after 5000 years on September 23:

 

 

At Loughcrew in Ireland, another stone passage was built to collect light from the rising Sun during either equinox:

 

 

All of these pictures came from www.mythicalireland.com. While researching this essay, I even found to my surprise that "waves" similar to those shown at Oliver's Castle were seemingly carved at Newgrange into Kerbstone 52:

 

 

What could all of this mean?

 

First, we seem to be reminded that the builders of those stone monuments in ancient Ireland or England were an advanced people like ourselves. They were called "Tuatha de' Danaan" or "People of the Star-Sky". Here is what www.mythicalireland.com has to say about them:
 

"Over five thousand years ago, a sophisticated and enigmatic community of people began to arise on the island of Ireland. They were the megalithic builders of the Stone Age, cunning engineers and master astronomers, who systematically assembled a vast calendrical and astronomical scheme which would stand intact over five millennia."

Next, we seem to be seeing a strong link between ancient civilizations and modern crop pictures. Not only do modern crop pictures often appear near megalithic sites, but their detailed content often shows a knowledge of megalithic astronomy. If Oliver's Castle was somehow made by human fakers, all credit to them!

Lastly, if not human made, one might ask why the mysterious crop artists drew Oliver's Castle so early in the 2007 season? Was it simply to mark the upcoming autumnal equinox on September 23? Or were they trying to tell us about something unexpected, say a surprising astronomical event scheduled for around September 23, 2007?. 

Those crop artists, at least once before, seem to have predicted an unexpected astronomical event in advance. Thus in the summer of 1995, several "breaking-up comet" and "wormhole" pictures accompanied the famous "missing Earth" picture at Longwood Warren. All four pictures pre-dated by several months the unexpected disapparation of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 which was then approaching Earth (www.cropcircleconnector.com, Research, "Supporting evidence in regard to Longwood Warren").

"Waves from space" were also implied by other crop pictures in recent years. Wayland's Smithy 2005 showed a "Mayan Sunstone" and gave a coded date of August 13-16, 2007 (the Mayan calendar began on August 13, 3114 BC). Wayland's Smithy 2006 showed "rays from space" and gave a coded date of August 8, 2007. Etchilhampton Hill showed an astronomical "gravity wave" on August 15, 2006.

 

Doug and Dave? Not likely. It becomes hard not to believe now, that we are receiving communications from another race more intelligent and advanced than ourselves, and who (somewhat surprisingly) have some kind of connection to the megalith builders from 5000 years ago.