The Waikoloa Petroglyph Field

The Waikoloa Petroglyph Field contains one of the major concentrations of ancient rock carvings in the Hawaiian Islands. Located just north of the border between the ancient kingdoms of Kohala and Kona, it reflects the importance of a boundary that was not crossed casually in old Hawaii, and many of the thousands of surface carvings may have had religious or commemorative meaning connected to crossing that border. Groups waiting for permission to cross, or armies preparing to defend or attack the border, made simple encampments here using cave shelters and rock wall windbreaks, including some "C" shaped windbreaks still visible in an unrepaired state. Most petroglyphs were cut with a sharp stone used as a chisel and struck with a hammer stone, with lines further incised by a sharp rock fragment, while others were made by rubbing a blunt stone against the lava or by pounding to break the natural glaze and reveal the granular interior. The oldest carvings have been blurred by erosion, and some damage has resulted from unauthorized rubbings. Their meanings remain uncertain, and early western reports were sometimes contradictory, perhaps to preserve secrecy, but the carvings were not idle doodling in a Polynesian world where expression carried significance and purpose. Pictorial images may have commemorated events, represented guardian spirits as prayer objects, or served as heraldic devices of clans, while dots, lines, and circles may have recorded group numbers, days of travel, prayers, or the number of trips past this place as enduring communication to posterity. Travelers may have recognized an ancestor's signature here and added their own marks. Hawaiian names in Roman letters, dates, and images of sailing ships and horses mark a poignant time of change, and the most recent carving is more than a century old. Though the trail was used primarily by commoners and the carvings may not bear directly on the main events of ancient Hawaii, they remain treasured as enigmatic but tangible, irreplaceable evidence of the old culture.

Waikoloa Beach Resort, Hawaii · United States