The Anakuakala Pictograph (Kiʻi Pakuhi) from Hawai‘i Island: A Contextual and Comparative Assessment.
Author(s): Timothy Scheffler
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "The Value of Rock Art: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Current Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis, Part I" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
<html>
The 2014 eruption of Kīlauea Volcano prompted the emergency survey of a cave in the Puna District of Hawaiʻi Island. The survey recorded several kilometers of cave passage including stacked rock structures, midden, and also a distinctive feature in the form of a geometric design. Given its geologic context and layout on the cave floor it is of unquestionable anthropogenic origin. The pictograph consists of multiple elements, including slabs of rock and long rootlets collected from elsewhere in the cave. It is surrounded by patches of concentrated ash. Two AMS radiocarbon dates on the ash and rootlet material suggest it was assembled in the 17<sup>th</sup> Century. A case is made for the importance of the cave at the landscape level and in culture history. The image is compared with the tradition of string figure making in Hawaiʻi and with a petroglyph from Kaho‘olawe Island, with which there are similarities. Analogies are suggested between its graphic elements and visual representations of Polynesian wayfaring and astronomical lore. Multiple lines of independent, yet circumstantial evidence are combined in an attempt to place the feature within a broader discussion of anthropological archaeology and social production in precontact Hawaiʻi. The image's function remains unknown.
</html>
Cite this Record
The Anakuakala Pictograph (Kiʻi Pakuhi) from Hawai‘i Island: A Contextual and Comparative Assessment.. Timothy Scheffler. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510371)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 52019