The Petroglyphs of Pu‘uloa
Georgia Lee, Ph.D.
“It seems...that petroglyphs were assigned meaning, and that this is true for all three categories; descriptive, symbolic, and cryptic.” “...cryptic or abstract images were used for secret and, possibly, ceremonial purposes.”
[Cox and Stasack 1970:68]
The site of Pu’uloa is in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, southeast side of the island of Hawai‘i. This well-known petroglyph site is on the bleak windswept lower slopes of Kilauea Volcano. Aside from grasses and a few small plants, ohia trees provide the only break in the seemingly endless sweep of lava. There is no nearby water source. Despite this, the site has a hard grandeur with the enormous black lava mountain on the north and deep blue ocean on the south.
Pu‘uloa is a pressure dome, somewhat higher then the surrounding areas of lave flow (pahoehoe). It’s name, Pu‘uloa, means “hill of long life”. The inland fork of the old Hawaiian trail from La’apuki to Kealakomo crosses the northern part of the dome (pu’u), and continues across and through the site. The ‘center’ of the site is the pu‘u, which is literally covered with petroglyphs, mainly cupules (small man-made cup-shaped depressions). Petroglyphs are found below the mound to the east and north, and extend along the trail to the east some 500 meters.
The trail system used by early Hawaiians served several functions; some led to destinations. Others had, in addition, ceremonial uses such as for the Makahiki. The site at Pu‘uloa appears to be clearly linked to the trail that runs through it.
Previous Research
Previous mention of this site plus collections of photographs represent the earliest information concerning the site. The first was 1824, when Ellis traversed the area. L.W. Bryan sent a collection of photographs of the Pu‘uloa petroglyphs to the Bishop Museum, dated May 14, 1927; a note accompanying the pictures states “...near the sea coast, land of Panau in Puna, Hawaii. They are near a small rise with two Ahus on it known locally as Puu Loa. This hill I am told is where the natives used to stop and rest when travelling [sic] from Puna to Kau in the old days and is right on the old trail.” The ten photographs show chalked petroglyphs.
Initial mapping of Pu‘uloa was by William Bonk of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo in 1964 who did a photo mapping project for the Bishop Museum that produced a selection of ten maps of the petroglyphs. According to Emory, Soehren and Ladd (1965:6-7), the recording was done “...by vertical photography....Each photograph recorded the petroglyphs in an area covered by a five-foot square frame with a string grid marking off one-foot squares.”
In 1966, on-site sketch maps were made of selected segments of the central part of the site by J. Halley Cox. They were used as a check against the drawings made from Bonk’s photographs [which had not been field checked]. Cox’s drawings revealed considerable errors in the prior work. The discrepancies were attributed to difficulties in interpreting the photographs and transferring them into drawings (D. Cox 1974:1). For example, the photographic method did not show details of configuration, width and size, and natural features in the rock were sometimes shown as petroglyphs.
According to David Cox (1974:3), by gross size and numbers of petroglyphs, Pu'uloa is the most impressive site in the state, containing, in the first 0.3 hectare area, at least 2300 motifs. Our final tally for the site is 23,566 petroglyphs. There is no other site in Hawai‘i that contains anything like these numbers.
Early Accounts
The earliest account dates from 1824, when Ellis (1917:203) observed petroglyphs:
Along the southern coast, both on the east and west sides, we frequently saw a number of straight lines, semicircles, or concentric rings, with some rude imitations of the human figure, cut or carved in the compact rocks of lava. They did not appear to have been cut with an iron instrument, but with a stone hatchet, or a stone less frangible that the rock on which they were portrayed.
On inquiry, we found that they had been made by former travelers, from a motive similar to that which induces a person to carve his initials on a stone or tree, or a traveler to record his name in an album, to inform his successors that he had been there.
When there were a number of concentric circles with a dot or mark in the center, the dot signified a man, and the number of rings denoted the number in the party who had circumambulated the island.
When there was a ring and a number of marks, it denoted the same; the number of marks showing of how many the party consisted; and the ring, that they had traveled completely around the island; but when there was only a semicircle, it denoted that they had returned after reaching the place where it was made.
In some of the islands we have see the outline of a fish portrayed in the same manner, to denote that one of that specie or size had been taken near the spot; sometimes the dimensions of an exceedingly large fruit, etc., are marked in the same way.
One can only wonder what Ellis saw, or thought he saw. Depictions of fruit are, to my knowledge, unknown, and petroglyphs of fish are exceedingly rare. Looking carefully at his statement about circumambulation, it defies analysis. What is he saying? How is it that, in one case a ring represents the circumambulation and a person, and hence signifies the number of persons in the party; and the dot represents a person, who by implication is the carver of the petroglyph? In the second instance, the ring represents only the circumambulation and the dots represent members of the party. Ellis’ account makes no logical sense. However, these notations were made at an early date, and thus are repeated over and over in the literature and may be the impetus for calling the petroglyphs ‘idle doodles’ for his ‘analysis’ of their functions suggests they are of little importance. For example, based upon Ellis, Emory, Soehren and Ladd (1965:9-10) decided that there is “...no doubt that they served in the nature of signatures and the presence of names, some of them coupled with petroglyphs, after Hawaiians had learned writing further bears this out. Except for Ellis’ information we would be quite at a loss to explain the circles and semi-circles. There is no reason to doubt the explanation given him that they were symbols which served to indicate a trip....” And, “The appearance of the isolated form of the ancient Hawaiian sail presents a puzzle unless we regard it as a symbol denoting that the person who made it wished to indicate that he was a sailor or that he had come by sail on the way to reach thisspot.”
Cox and Stasack (1970:56) note: “Puuloa is of particular significance because it is the only site for which a specific function has been recorded. Because it was still in use in the late 1800s, some of the older residents of Puna were able to relate some specific information abut the meaning of the symbols found there.”
In 1914, anthropologist Martha Beckwith (n.d.) recorded the following in her field notes:
Rode out to Puuloa on the line between Kealakomo and Apuki. Here is a large pahoehoe mound used as a depository for the umbilical cord at the birth of a child. A hole is made in the hard crust, the cord is put in and as stone is placed over it. In the morning the cord has disappeared; there is no trace of it. This insures long life for the child. Mrs. Kama, born in 1862, was a native of Kamoamoa. Her mother brought her cord there. She had 15 children and for each one at birth the visit was made to Puuloa. Another mound, on the southern boundary of Apuki, called Puumanawalea, was similarly used.
Beckwith’s notes include sketches: a dot was ‘the hole for a child’; a dot in a circle, ‘the hole for a first born’; and a dot within two circles, ‘the first born of an alii’. A plain circle was a ‘calabash’; a zig-zag line was a ‘mo‘o’ [lizard] and a circle with a long line was a ‘puloulou’ [tapu stick]; and so on. Beckwith went over these interpretations with Mrs. Kama who suggested that the informant would say anything for the sake of pleasing (emphasis ours).
Another tale collected about Pu‘uloa came from the son of Beckwith’s informant, Sam Konanui:
Pu‘uloa means a long life, and that is why they chose Pu‘uloa to deposit the piko of their children. You make a puka (hole) by pounding with a stone, then in the puka you put the piko, then shove a stone in the place where the piko is placed. The reason for putting in that stone is to save the piko from the rats . . . . Sam Konanui stated that pikos were apparently saved in a calabash, and then brought to Pu‘uloa from all over the islands: If they had ten children they would make ten pukas . . . .They made the holes round in a ring so they would know they belonged to one family. (Cox and Stasack 1970:56).
It was said that a piko that remained undisturbed in its hole overnight would guarantee a successful petition for a long and happy life. One can assume it was successful more often than not because of the great number of them. Other marks may have been made by tax collectors during the Makahiki. Because of the diversity of images at Pu‘uloa (and elsewhere) it is clear that there were many reasons for making the petroglyphs in addition to the piko ceremony.
Whether intentionally or not, the piko hole became a birth record. By no means were they like a census: piko were also placed into crevices or man-made holes elsewhere where the family thought it might do the most good for the child and probably the child’s family. This caused them to be placed in various special locations. The umbilical stump, being the vital link with the mother, became the link to the mana of wherever it was placed. At Pu‘uloa, the family sought long life; those placed on Captain James Cook’s ship would receive the blessings of Lono, with whom Cook was identified. (Beaglehole 1967:1225).
Relying upon early accounts, such as those by missionaries and other visitors to the islands has its difficulties. Graves and Erkelens (1991:8-9) point out the problem of reliability when dealing with oral narratives or written sources. Errors may be made when the information was first recorded. For one thing, those collecting the information were undoubtedly culturally biased. That which may have been true for one of the islands of Hawai‘i might not be the case for all the islands, and accounts recorded in historic times are not necessarily true for the pre-historic period. It is thus vital that we not accept as gospel all early accounts that mention the uses of petroglyphs, or postulated interpretations made centuries after the fact. The use of cupules as repositories or symbols for the placement of an infant’s umbilical stump is well within Polynesian tradition and has been recorded also for Easter Island[1]. Calling circles evidence for ‘trips around the island’ and so on, appear to be a guess made to Ellis by some early informant. His comments have received wide distribution; and thus many, without critical evaluation, have accepted this ‘interpretation’.
Field methodology
Work began at the extreme eastern end of the petroglyph field and proceeded westward towards the pu‘u. The petroglyph field was covered with string grids in ten- meter squares, oriented north-south/east-west. Because of survey difficulties, such as high winds and magnetism of the lava, it was found necessary to construct a reference line against which the growing grid could be referred.
Within each ten-meter quadrant, panels of petroglyphs were gridded with twenty centimeter string grids and were drawn to scale on grid paper. Petroglyphs were recorded as full panels, that is, in context with other associated motifs. This method is preferable to selecting out individual elements, for that which is associated may be significant. All elements were measured and such things as relation to the trail, unusual depth of line, superimpositions, etc., were noted. The trail is the constant feature of this site. The incidence of petroglyphs is directly related to it and foot traffic over the centuries has made a clear path through the petroglyphs, some of which have been erased; others are barely visible. Although this technique of documentation is tedious and time-consuming, a careful record is obtained, with the ever-present thought in mind that the site may be lost due to future lava flows.
The final step in documentation is to place each petroglyph motif into a computerized database. Within the ten-meter grids, the numbers of individual elements ran from one to 584. We noted that, the closer we got to the pu‘u, the larger the numbers of petroglyphs and the more incidences of superimposititioning.
As has been noted at other sites in Hawai‘i, natural formations in the lava were often utilized as part or setting for the designs. A particular favorite seems to be small natural dome-like blisters with one or more cupules pecked into the top. We also recorded lines pecked along the spines of a ‘rope’ of lava. Some natural inclusions in the lava were incorporated into the petroglyphs. These features are called ‘iconic congruence’ and are not specific to Hawai‘i, but common in many parts of the world where natural features in the rock either inspired the petroglyph or were found attractive by the ancient carvers.
For the petroglyphs to be seen by individuals passing along the trail seems to not be the key factor, aswe noted some motifs pecked on surfaces that tilt away from the trail and can be viewed only if one leaves the path and walks out, either north or south of the trail. In addition, some that are on tilted surfaces may be visible only at certain times in the day when the light comes from an oblique angle.
Vandalism was noted, in the form of paint traces, chalk, and residue left behind from attempts to make castings. Many of the best designs have been disfigured in this manner. Two areas appear to have sections of petroglyph-bearing rock removed.
At the end of the recording project our database was 23,566 petroglyphs. The universe of designs included the ubiquitous cupules (84%), circles, circles with variations, concentric circles, and cup-and-ring combinations. Only 1.9% were anthropomorphic figures.
Discussion
Without doubt, Pu‘uloa meant ‘hill of long life’ thus a visit to the site, andcontact with it apparently assured the faithful of a long life. This is well within Hawaiian tradition. Emory, Soehren and Ladd 1965:9 state:
It must be true that Hawaiians did visit Puuloa to place umbilical cords there. . . . Some of the dots, or cup-marks may have been made to receive them, but it was usual to put such cords into a natural deep crack or crevice. Most of the dots are far too small to hold an umbilical cord, and some of them are in rows of shallow cup-marks on the face of vertical fissures in the Puuloa Lava dome. . . . As we are now certain that most of the petroglyphs were executed singly and that the many hundreds of dots are actually tally marks indicating the visit of an individual or of the number of people in a visiting group, a count of those on the maps would be of value in estimating the minimum number of Hawaiians who had stopped in the area.
According to Cox and Stasack (1970:68-70), cupules were only used once. They suggest:
The probable function of the piko tally marks at Puuloa and similar marks in other sites is fairly well established. Because of this and because of the great number of three particular kinds of these marks, a development from functionality to symbolism can be demonstrated. First, there is the simple piko hole, a circular depression in the pahoehoe lava which averages 2 inches in diameter and slightly less than 1 inch deep; second, the piko hole with a circle incised around it; finally, a great number of variations on the theme of a central dot with variously concentric circles, fragments of circular or U shapes, even such fragmented images as a series of dots which lie on the circumference of a circle, and bars or lines in series.
The word piko refers to the navel, navel string, and umbilical cord; it can also refer to a blood relative and to the genitals (there is a genital piko, a navel piko, and a piko at the fontanel). It can describe the summit of a hill, crown of the head, tip of the ear, end of a rope, and place where a leaf attaches to a stem. (Cox and Stasack 1970: footnote page 69).
The universe of designs at Pu‘uloa includes cupules, circles, circles with variations, concentric circles and cup and ring combinations. Some circles have been carved out so that, instead of cupules inside, raised round protubances stand out in bas relief. A tendency was noted for outlining designs with enclosures, circles or squares. The meaning of the numerous circles motifs is obscure but for Hawaiians, “. . . the circle evokes a being enclosed in on itself because it is complete and self-sufficient. Accordingly, circular things and things capable of circular motion are often considered divine. . . .(Valeri 1985:89).