Contrary to popular belief, the Easter Island Heads arrived by boat. They ventured from island to island in search of a location with suitable facilities for relentless sitting and staring.

It’s almost Easter and I thought it appropriate that I do and Easter-related drawing. I’ve often been fascinated by the massive stone Easter Island heads dotted around this intriguing island. I read that there are 887 of them. There is still a lot of speculation about how they were transported to the various points around the island. One theory (apart from mine) is that they were ‘walked’ around as outlined in this National Geographic video. I’m not sure why they needed to be blindfolded. Perhaps they loved surprises.

It was also discovered a long time ago that these heads are attached to large bodies, buried underground. Excavations have shown their impressive height (depth?) and size in general.

So now you might be looking at my drawing and wondering how their bodies were able to fit in those relatively small boats. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect these boats extend downward, way below the water surface. Either that or there a holes in the bottom of the boats and the statues are actually walking / wading, wearing the boats to give the illusion that that are just floating heads. There is no real documentation to support any of this and it’s possible I’m just making it up as I go along.

There was a lot of reference material online featuring these monoliths, but I couldn’t find any pictures of heads in boats to go by. This is therefore my interpretation of what the first arrival might have looked like.

I thought about drawing all 887 Easter Island heads but refrained because of the potential for overcrowding in such a comparatively small panel. Three in a boat are hopefully sufficient, but I did draw the beginning of a second boat to give a hint that more were on there way.

Ok, this has nothing to do with Easter really, apart from the name of the island, but both the island’s name and this drawing were inspired by the time of year.

Happy Easter.