Actually, the location of the pictogram is archaeologically significant: it lies at the foot of the Thieberg, a Thing or ancient Teutonic tribal parliament site, possibly on top of a prehistoric processional path. In the immediate vicinity is the Wuldenberg, an ancient Germanic Wotan sacred site on which a church was erected under Charlemagne, and the Holy Grove (Heilige Holz) of the Teutons, which was fought over right into the Middle Ages. When a feudal lord gave the order to fell this sacred wood in 1273, he was murdered by the people of Grasdorf: a small civil war was the result, and the wood stayed untouched until the 19th century. So this very ancient Saxon heartland, christianed no earlier than the 9th century as a result of the victory of Charlemagne over the Saxons, had been sacred for at least 4,000 years. Dr Nowothnig, an archaeologist from Hannover, described the neighbourhood as "one of the most significant prehistoric cult areas of Europe"..."

"So was this a real pictogram? Much speaks for it. When a person going for a walk passed the field around 11:00pm, nothing unusual was visible, so its creation must have happened later. There are signs of quite unusual causes of this pictogram: that night Christian Fiedler from Grasdorf had seen an orange-coloured, pulsing light, which moved to and from at great speed in the area in question. Thousands came to visit the formation, and farmer Harenberg started collecting entrance fees at the field’s edge, following the example of his British colleagues"...

Hesemann writes about the finding, and the later analysis. What were found were three plates: a bronze, silver and one gold plate, the bronze and silver now in the hands of an industrialist. They were shown at his internationally UFO conference, "Dialogue with the Universe", in Dusseldorf, Germany in October, 1992 and used again when he filmed a piece on the Grasdorf case for the US-TV programme, "Encounters" in April, 1994. In addition, the Tugingen lawyer, Dr Roemer-Blum, arranged a scientific evaluation at the German Federal Institute for Material Research (Bundesanstalt fur Materialpufung) in Berlin. Their conclusion, after carefully analyzing both plates was:

"Plate one (silver color) consisted mainly of quite pure silver (what an understatement!), with an additional ingredient accounting for less than 0.1%. The weight of the plate was 4.98kg (11lbs). Plate two (bronze color) consisted of a copper-tin alloy (of which the tin content amounted to 10%-15%), nickel and traces of iron amounting to less than 0.1%".

This meant that the silver plate consisted of 99.9% pure silver, purer than sterling-silver. Furthermore, a spectrographic analysis of both plates proved that they had not been made from a cast but from some kind of conglomerate of silver nuggets and natural copper and tin pieces of the type found in Germany’s Harz forest, not far from Grasdorf. They had been produced, either by heating up to a degree that partially melted the metals - or in a low-gravity environment. We are left with the question of what hoaxer would go to such expensive lengths, in terms of cost and effort, simply to pull the wool over the eyes of the press and a few crop circle enthusiasts?"

It is further mentioned of the gold plate, of the finest quality that had been seen by the examiner. The industrialist received about 25,000 Euros for the bronze and silver plate and the gold was worth at least 75,000 Euros.

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