Hawaiian Petroglyphs and Pictographs: Patterns and Interpretations from Hawai’i, Maui, Moloka’i, O’ahu, and Kaua’i

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Hawaiian Islands have a variety of rock art sites I have examined and photographed on five of the eight main islands over the past 50 years, with most of the research conducted more recently as summarized in this presentation. Some islands have only a few petroglyph locations, whereas the Big Island (Hawai’i) has the most with over 70 sites. In general, pictographs are relatively rare. Hawaiian anthropomorphic motifs include stick-figures that evolved into triangular-bodied elements followed by triangular figures depicted with muscles. Other petroglyph elements include dogs, outrigger canoe sails, and based on ethnographical and ethnohistorical sources, cupules used to place umbilical cords (piko) of newborn infants. Historical motifs depict rifles, sailing vessels, horses, and other introduced material culture, as well as alphabetical lettering taught to Native Hawaiians by missionaries. Although some rock art sites are protected by local and state agencies, many have been vandalized, and others destroyed by development of resorts and/or increased tourism, including showing rock art photos and site locations on internet blogs. For coastal sites, another emerging threat involves rising sea levels due to climate change, and some rock art sites have already been submerged due to subsidence from geological processes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36452.0