Evidence that crop circles are not a modern phenomena? Sorry. No.

Not a crop circle.

Newspapers and websites rattled off the reports that Australian archaeologist, Greg Jeffereys, had discovered evidence of crop circles circa 1945. The evidence of this is via the 1945 photographic overlay for Google Earth. The danger with this is looking at photographs and thinking “Wow, a circle, it must be a crop circle!” Now, what we are actually looking at are ancient earthworks as captured in the photographs. Also, the area in question in these photographs is known to have huge amounts of earthworks. According to the Heritage Gateway website, the known earthworks in this area are as follows:

MESOLITHIC SITE –
NEOLITHIC CULTIVATION MARKS –
LATE BRONZE AGE FIELD BOUNDARY –
LATE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT –
IRON AGE FIELD BOUNDARY –
IRON AGE LONGHOUSE –
IRON AGE PALISADED ENCLOSURE –
IRON AGE ROUND HOUSE (DOMESTIC) –
IRON AGE SETTLEMENT –
ROMAN FARM 43 – 410
ROMAN FINDSPOT 43 – 410
ROMAN STORAGE PIT 43 – 410
EARLY MEDIEVAL LONGHOUSE 649 – 1066
EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT 649 – 1066
MEDIEVAL BUILDING 1066 – 1410
MEDIEVAL COW HOUSE 1066 – 1410
MEDIEVAL CROFT 1066 – 1410
MEDIEVAL DESERTED SETTLEMENT 1066 – 1410
MEDIEVAL HOUSE 1066 – 1410
MEDIEVAL RIDGE AND FURROW 1066 – 1410
MEDIEVAL TOFT 1066 – 1410

So firstly all of these need to be ruled out at the source of the structures in the photographs. Also, this area was used extensively for parachute training during the second world war, and some of those shapes on the ground have been confirmed as parachutes targets. There is even a memorial at this site to those who died whilst parachuting during the war. This is the danger of purely internet based research: looking at a photograph and thinking ‘This looks like…’ This isn’t the first time that old photographs have been scoured for evidence of crop circles. The previous attempts also turned up nothing.

Dr. David Clarke has also turned up some interesting research into unusual crop markings courtesy of files released by MI5 (cue conspiracy theory) and that can be accessed here.

Sadly Greg also fails to explain why aliens were only capable of creating poorly executed circular formations in 1945 as compared to the amazingly complex formations we see today. So, sadly no evidence of old crop circles.