New Photos Reveal Giant Easter Island Moai Statues are Covered in Mysterious Symbols

New images from the 2012 excavation of Easter Island’s iconic statues reveal the renowned heads are not only connected to giant bodies, but the bodies are covered in mysterious designs and symbols, which researchers have likened to tattoos.

News.com.au reports that a previously unseen series of photographs show in fascinating detail the excavated bodies of the distinctive stone humanoids. Archaeologists were surprised to find that the stone bodies, shielded from environmental weathering beneath the soil, are decorated with ancient details —whirls and crescents believed to be tattoos.

Researchers say the crescent shapes might represent the canoes of local Polynesians, though this is just one theory.