*The Mowing-Devil* (1678), or, the Earliest Known Depiction of a Crop Circle — The Public Domain Review

At the height of the crop circle craze of the 1980s and 1990s, any number of explanations, natural and unnatural, were proposed for the perfectly crushed patches of cereal appearing across the English countryside and beyond. Were they left behind by alien visitors, flattened by freak weather events, or manipulated by the Earth’s magnetic fields? Cereologists, dedicated crop circle researchers, looked to the archives to turn up whatever historical record existed. In 1989, editors of the British paranormal magazine Fortean Times surfaced a pamphlet that appears to be the oldest known image of a crop circle. Dating to August 22, 1678, The Mowing-Devil: Or, Strange News out of Hartford-shire opens with an impish woodcut. The small, plump figure of the devil stoops, scythe in hand. He is midway through a field of blazing oats, making his way inward in concentric rings, leaving a trail of felled stalks in his wake. His mouth is open as if to catch his breath as he works, his small goat tail wagging.