Further examples of Olmec-Mayan astronomy or calendars in crops: did the British megalith builders visit central America long ago?

In a previous essay on this website, I studied a series of crop pictures that had appeared in Wiltshire from 1997 to 2007. Those were concerned with either: (a) the naked-eye astronomy of Venus as a bright planetary object, or (b) modern calendar dates that seem to depend on current Sun-Venus astronomical cycles. A Sun-Venus calendar was in regular use throughout central America thousands of years ago.

 
But why should it appear today in crop pictures from Wiltshire? Here we will study further crop pictures from modern England, most of which concern themselves with ancient Olmec-Mayan astronomy, in order to address that puzzling question.
 
West Down 2001 shows an occultation of Venus by the Moon
 
West Down appeared on June 22, 2001, just three weeks before a rare eclipse or occultation of Venus by a crescent Moon on July 17, 2001. As shown below, that crop picture was apparently meant to focus our attention on a rare astronomical event involving Venus: 

 

Etchilhampton Hill 2006 shows a bright Venus just before quadruple conjunction

 
Etchilhampton Hill appeared on August 15, 2006. Michelle Jennings suggested that it might represent the "day sign Lamat", one of twenty in a Mayan-Aztec month. I suggested an "astronomical gravity wave". Yet Stephen Willson argued more correctly perhaps for the "planet Venus"; and even provided a sky photograph of Venus at the time:  

 
Indeed, there was a rare quadruple conjunction involving Venus just one week later on the morning of August 22, 2006: when Venus, the Moon, Saturn and Mercury all came together in the eastern sky. 

 

A Sun-Venus calendar in the Dresden Codex


The astronomical role of Venus in Olmec-Mayan culture was first discovered by Ernst Förstmann in 1906, when he noticed that the sum of a certain series of numbers in the Dresden Codex (see above) equalled 584. That sum matches precisely the number of days in any phase cycle of Venus as seen from Earth. But what might its individual numbers 236, 90, 250 and 8 signify? For a lucid answer to that question, we may turn to an article by Robert Merrill in American Antiquity 12, 35-46 (1946):
 
"Having allotted 90 and 8 days to measure two periods of Venus invisibility as seen from Earth, there remains (584 - 98) = 486 days for its two periods of visibility. If equal, those would amount to 243 days each. But making allowance for a slightly shorter winter season (179 days) than summer (186 days), the Mayans arrived at (243 - 7) = 236 days for visible appearances of Venus as a morning star, or (243 + 7) = 250 days for visible appearances of Venus as an evening star."
 
Quite remarkably, the Venus Table in that Dresden Codex (750 AD) also describes well our modern, crop-based Sun-Venus calendar, as noted in a previous essay on this website ("Chute Causeway and the Sun-Venus calendar").
 
Five hundred years before (150 AD), an Olmec stela called "La Mojarra" told the story of a warrior chief named Harvest Mountain Lord. The stela began by referring to a Venus phase cycle of 584 days. Then on one day of that cycle, during a solar eclipse, the chief and his supporters went to war. Exactly nine Venus cycles later, he was inaugurated king (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mojarra_Stela_1).
 
Morgan Hill 2007 shows a bright Venus just before maximal elongation
 
Venus shone very brightly in Earth's sky all throughout May and June of 2007. And indeed, a crop picture from Morgan Hill on May 18, 2007 (see below, left-hand side) showed a "bright pentagram" symbol for Venus, just two weeks before its maximal elongation on June 9, 2007:

 

Pewsey 2007 shows the precise value of lunar phase for a Venus-Sun conjunction two weeks later

 
Two months later on August 4, 2007, another crop picture at Pewsey (see above, right-hand side) showed a Sun-Moon calendar that pointed on the northwest horizon to 300 degrees azimuth, where a new Moon would rise on August 13, close to late summer sunset. That new Moon would then grow to a crescent of 34% phase (as shown in the Pewsey crop picture) by August 18, 2007, which was the date of an inferior conjunction of Venus with the Sun.
 
Stanton St. Bernard 2007 shows an Olmec-Mayan number "six" to mark a Venus-Sun conjunction six days later
 
On August 12, 2007, a fairly simple crop picture appeared at Stanton St. Bernard. It showed just the Olmec-Mayan number "six", as well as certain fine structural details within its large dot-like circle. The likely meaning of its number six was obvious: an earlier series of crop pictures in the summer of 2007 had pointed to August 18 as some kind of significant date. Thus by August 12, there would be only "six days left" until August 18 as the date of a Venus-Sun conjunction:   

 

Stanton St. Bernard 2007 also marked a Venus-Sun transit six conjunctions later

 
Now that same crop picture (see above) also encoded a clever double meaning, which it took a while to figure out! Thus as of August 18, 2007, there would also be just "six Venus-Sun conjunctions left" (of 292 days each) until a rare Venus-Sun transit on June 6, 2012!
 
The Mayan Long Count (one of their three major calendars, along with the Venus-based Calendar Round and a Lunar Series) had appeared previously in crops at Wakerly Woods on June 3, 2001, then at Marden on August 20, 2005. Both pictures showed an 18 x 20 = 360-day year in symbolic form (www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=110).

 

Table I. Further examples of Venus astronomy in crops

 

Location of crop picture

Date of appearance

Date of astronomical event

Specific nature of astronomical event

West Down

June 22, 2001

July 17, 2001

occultation of Venus by the Moon

Etchilhampton Hill

August 15, 2006

August 22, 2006

quadruple conjunction of Venus

Morgan Hill

May 18, 2007

June 9, 2007

elongation of bright Venus

Pewsey

August 4, 2007

August 13, 2007

new Moon

 

 

August 18, 2007

conjunction of Venus with the Sun on a crescent Moon

Stanton St. Bernard

August 12, 2007

August 18, 2007

conjunction of Venus with the Sun

 

 

June 6, 2012

transit of Venus across the face of the Sun

 

West Overton 2006, Cannings Cross 2007, and Alton Barnes 1990 show dumbbell-like symbols from ancient central America
 
Yet another remarkable crop picture appeared at West Overton on July 19, 2006, showing a series of dumbbell-like symbols that were used to represent "motion of the Sun" in ancient central America (http://rupestreweb.tripod.com/motif.html):

 
Then at Cannings Cross on July 17, 2007, other dumbbell-like symbols were used to represent "motion of the Moon":  

 
In Hopi petroglyphs that were drawn thousands of years ago, the dumbbell symbol often meant "communication" or "a meeting was held here" (www.petroglyphs.us/photographs_atlatl_cliff_petroglyphs_AC.htm):  

 
One can easily see how such dumbbell symbols, originally representing solar or lunar astronomy, could have slowly evolved into the hieroglyphic language that appeared in many crop pictures from Wiltshire in early years, for example at Alton Barnes on July 11, 1990 (see above).
 
Mayan lunar astronomy

Mayan Long Count or Calendar Round inscriptions were often supplemented by what is known as the "Lunar Series", which is another one of their calendars that provides information about: (i) age of the Moon since new, (ii) its phase cycle in a series of six, spanning 6 x 29.5 = 177 days, and (iii) whether any particular cycle contains 29 or 30 days.

Let us recall here their famous prediction for an end to the current Long Count calendar in December of 2012:

"The day will be 4 Ahau 3 Kankin (December 22, 2012), and it will be ruled by the Sun God (winter solstice), ninth Lord of the Night (certain day of the week). The Moon will be eight days old (eight days past new), and it will be the third lunar cycle in a series of six." 
Is that true? One can easily verify that there will be a new Moon on December 14, 2012. Hence in that particular lunar cycle, the Moon will be "eight days old" on December 22, 2012 just as predicted!

And if "lunar cycle three" in their ancient calendar begins on December 14, 2012, then another new Moon on April 10, 2013 will put an end to "lunar cycle six". Just two weeks before, a full Moon on March 27-28, 2013 will coincide fortuitously with a Sun-Venus conjunction, that will complete their current 52-year Calendar Round (previous essay).

East Kennett 2005 and Avebury 2005 both show Mayan lunar calendars

Although most people did not realize it at the time, a "Mayan lunar calendar" seemingly appeared in crops on July 24, 2005, when two related pictures were found on the same day at East Kennett and Avebury. That East Kennett picture showed "12 lunar cycles per year" in the form of twelve Mayan symbols for "time", arranged symmetrically about a single centre:

The Avebury picture showed a six-pointed star at its centre, which was intended to represent apparently "six lunar cycles" in any half-year of their calendar. Thus within any six-month period of 6 x 29.5 = 177 days, there would be six lunar cycles of alternating 29 or 30 days. Similarly within any twelve-month period of 354 days, there would be twelve lunar cycles as shown at East Kennett.

Now the ancient British lunar calendar may have been somewhat different. A fairly lucid crop picture appeared at Juggler's Lane on August 28, 2005, and showed an alternative calendar that would count twelve lunar cycles per year as three sets of four, each spanning 4 x 29.5 = 118 days:

Single lunar cycles were also shown at East Field on July 18, 2005 (when the Moon was in Virgo, full on July 21) and at Kits Coty on July 11, 2006 (when the Moon was in Scorpius, full on July 11). In each case, a certain pattern of stars near the ecliptic was used to give those lunar cycles a distinctive shape (see "The Scorpius Hour" by Kris Sherwood 1994 on www.cropcircleanswers.com/scorpious_hour.htm).

Individual lunar cycles were portrayed in each case as balls of increasing size, when going from new to full (Virgo) or half to full (Scorpius). Furthermore, in certain portrayals of the lunar cycle as at East Field (Virgo), other "small balls" are often drawn between or perpendicular to the large ones, in order to confirm a certain value of lunar phase (see also three famous pictures from Stonehenge 1996, Windmill Hill 1996 or Miik Hill 2001).

East Field 2007 shows a four-month lunar calendar, but how to date it in terms of our modern calendar?

Earlier this summer, a now-famous crop picture from East Field on July 7, 2007 seemed to show a classic four-month British lunar calendar,  just as was illustrated at Juggler's Lane on August 28, 2005. An ancient Mayan astronomer might comment on that picture as follows:
 
"The Moon will be six days old (past new), and it will be the fourth lunation in a series of four." 

(

How can we date the four lunar cycles shown at East Field in terms of in our modern calendar? If we work backwards from the known Mayan calendar end-date of April 10, 2013 (see above), then our current six-cycle lunar calendar would begin on June 15, 2007 and end on December 10, 2007. Yet we seem to be following here a four-cycle lunar calendar, not six!

 
Alternatively, Pewsey of August 4, 2007 showed a solar-lunar calendar that pointed on the horizon to where a new Moon would rise on August 13. Could that be the start of "lunar cycle one"? 
 
In which case, one might assign "lunar cycle one" to August 13-September 12, "lunar cycle two" to September 12-October 11, "lunar cycle three" to October 11-November 10, and "lunar cycle four" to November 10-December 10. Quite interestingly, a Moon that is "six days past new" in lunar cycle four would give November 16, close to the date of an annual Leonid meteor shower. Again we would end on December 10, 2007 just as for the current Mayan lunar calendar.
 
Table II. Two possible four-month lunar calendars based on East Field 2007

 

Lunar cycle

Start-end 2007

“six days past new”

Start-end 2007

“six days past new”

1

May 16-June 15

-----

August 13-Sept. 12

 -----

2

June 15-July 14

-----

Sept. 12-October 11

 -----

3

July 14-August 13

-----

October 11-November 10

 -----

4

August 13-Sept. 12

August 18

(Sun-Venus conjunction)

November 10-Dec. 10

November 16

(Leonid meteors,

other?)  

 
Another possible interpretation of East Field is also shown in Table II above, where "six days past new" gives August 18, 2007 which was the date of a Sun-Venus conjunction. Other people believe that the ancient Celts counted lunar cycles starting on the sixth day after any new Moon.
 
Only two unexplained calendar dates remain out of hundreds of pictures studied
 
After long and detailed analyses of hundreds of crop pictures over the past five years, it seems now that only two modern calendar dates as suggested by those messages cannot be readily explained, in terms of known or predictable astronomical or calendrical events. One would be November 21, 2007 plus or minus two days from Wayland's Smithy 2005 ("14-5-11" in hexadecimal using a 52-year Sun-Venus calendar). The other would be August 18 / November 16 from East Field 2007. We may only learn the correct answers to those unexplained dates as time goes on.
 
Did some of the British megalith builders visit central America long ago?

When considered as a whole, the weight of evidence from modern crop pictures now seems overwhelming, that there must have been some contact between the British megalith builders and Olmecs or other pre-Mayan people in central America long ago. The Olmecs built cities at San Lorenzo, La Venta, Tres Zapotes and Laguna de los Cerros from 1200 to 400 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec). Somewhat later, great pyramids and ceremonial centres were built at Teotihuacan from 100 BC to 700 AD, including its famous Pyramid of Sun and Pyramid of Moon. That was all long before the Mayans or Aztecs lived there.
 
In fact, archaeological remains from La Venta do suggest that a few European visitors may have lived there thousands of years ago:  

 
And somewhat remarkably, a "three-lobed jester's hat" that appeared in crops at East Field on July 28, 2006 (with a knapsack attached to give the impression of :travelling) seems to match precisely a similar three-lobed hat from a statue that was carved at La Venta 3000 years ago, resting atop the head of a long-nosed European or Englishman:

 
Another ancient carving from La Venta likewise depicts "Quetzalcoatal the Feathered Serpent" as a long-nosed European:

Here is a brief summary of legends about Quetzalcoatl: he and his companions arrived by boat from across the Eastern Sea. He was a tall, bearded white man who taught people how to use fire for cooking, how to build houses, and how to live in peace. He also introduced many new mathematical or calendrical formulae that the Mayans and Aztecs would use later. 

 
Well, now it seems quite obvious! How else could primitive people in the equatorial jungle of Yucatan have suddenly developed advanced astronomy, mathematics and calendars, and even built huge pyramids at Teotihuacan, without some kind of cross-cultural diffusion from the megalith builders in England or Europe?
 
An ancient concern for solar astronomy as shown in Wiltshire crops also appears in the Pyramid of the Sun
 
We could provide much more evidence here to support a possible link between ancient Britain and central America, but for brevity will close with just one striking analogy: namely, that both cultures showed a strong concern for megalithic solar astronomy
 
For example, Avebury at a latitude of 51 degrees North experiences each year during late July or early August something that might be called "threefold symmetry of the Sun". During that particular time of the year, sunrise lies at 60 degrees azimuth on the horizon, noon at 180 degrees, and sunset at 300 degrees:  

 
Now at a much lower latitude of 15 degrees North in the Yucatan, angular deviations of sunrise or sunset away from due east 90 degrees or due west 270 degrees will not be as great during the four seasons. Yet the Olmec or other pre-Mayan people were clearly experts at naked-eye astronomy of the Sun, as well as that of Venus or the Moon. For example in Teotihuacán, its famous Pyramid of the Sun (100 BC) was aligned precisely toward 285 degrees on the horizon, where the sun sets on August 13 in any year. On that day, one entire face of the pyramid becomes covered in shadow during the late afternoon.. 
 

 
Why would they possibly choose August 13 as a solar astronomy date around which to build a huge pyramid? Some scholars have argued that they built their most magnificent pyramid in that way, because August 13 was the day on which their Long Count calendar began in 3114 BC (www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/CS-MM-Chap.%205.htm).
 
Others argue that their Pyramid of the Sun encodes a mathematical value of four times pi, just as the Great Pyramid in Egypt encodes a value of two times pi (shown in crops at Alton Barnes on June 7, 2007).
 
A similar mathematical language underlies both ancient architecture and modern crop pictures

"At the top of the Pyramid of the Moon, I turned around. Teotihuacan stretched before me: a geometrical city designed by unknown architects before history began. In the east loomed the Pyramid of the Sun, eternally printing out its mathematical messages. It almost looked as though the civilization that built Teotihuacan had made a deliberate choice to encode a mathematical language into enduring monuments. No matter what changes human culture might undergo, a mathematical language could always be deciphered, even by people living thousands of years in the future."---from Fingerprints of the Gods (1995) by Graham Hancock

Did some of the megalith builders from ancient Britain teach Olmec or other pre-Mayan people in central America how to build enduring monuments, and how to keep track of long periods of time, using calendars based on Venus, the Moon and the Sun? If so, then we can begin to understand why many modern crop pictures show an amazing parallel with certain aspects of the lost Olmec, Mayan or Aztec civilizations that flourished there before European conquest in 1520. If indeed, such crop pictures are being sent to us from the distant past?

We can also begin to understand why modern crop pictures often seem impenetrable to someone without an advanced technical education, but lucid (or at least comprehensible) to someone trained in science or mathematics. It is simply because those crop artists, whom we identified previously with the British megalith builders, and here as the likely builders of great central American monuments, seemingly prefer to use a mathematical language that will always be able to be deciphered, even by people living thousands of years in the future.
 
But that would be us! They are now sending 50 mathematical messages every year to fields near Avebury where they once lived, or to certain parts of Europe. The only plausible reason for this strange, future-messaging phenomenon (which began in 1990, and is continuing strongly today) might be because we are soon approaching the end of their famous Long Count calendar in December of 2012. Concerning that date, they seemingly have something to tell us. In which case, should we not devote ourselves whole-heartedly to a careful scientific study of this phenomenon, while putting irrational fear-based scepticism behind us?                     
 
Red Collie (a scientist like the crop artists, yet living far ahead of them in time)

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Mark Fussell & Stuart Dike

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