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Ancient Hawaiians created petroglyphs to express what was important to them.

Pu’u Loa contains approximately 15,000 petroglyphs.

These images engraved onto pahoehoe portray humans.

Petroglyphs can be viewed from the boardwalk which protects and preserves them.

I hope you all enjoyed my previous post on pahoehoe! During our visit to the Big Island of Hawai’i, we hiked over fields of pahoehoe to see the ancient Pu’u Loa petroglyphs in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

The word petroglyph contains the Greek roots petro– , meaning rock, and glyph, meaning carving or engraving. Petroglyph literally means “rock carving.”

The Pu’u Loa petroglyphs were carved many centuries ago by native Hawaiians. Since the ancient Hawaiians didn’t have a written language, they created petroglyphs to express what was important to each of them. I was in awe of the sheer number of petroglyphs; this site contains approximately 15,000 images that have been engraved in pahoehoe. Some of the images we saw included human forms, insects, and geometric shapes. We spent a lot of time poring over the images and contemplating the meaning behind the petroglyphs.

Unis-Ankh’s cartouche. Photo taken at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Hieroglyphs within Unis- Ankh’s tomb. Photo taken at the Field Museum in Chicago.

My favorite place to go in Chicago is the Field Museum. During a recent visit, I found the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit most interesting. The exhibit includes an ancient, limestone tomb which our tour guide told us was Unis-Ankh’s real tomb. Unis-Ankh was the son of King Unis, the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (2428- 2407 B.C.). We saw Unis-Ankh’s cartouche, which is a hieroglyphic name plate at the entry. Then we went inside to a little room and saw hieroglyphs all around us. A hieroglyph is a character in any system of writing that uses pictures. The word was originally used for the oldest system of writing Ancient Egyptian. Hieroglyph comes from the Greek roots hier meaning sacred and glyph meaning carve. Hieroglyphs are “sacred carvings!” There were hints of red on the wall, which the tour guide explained was from ochre. The limestone was protected with plexiglass in order to preserve the 5,000 year old stone. On the tour, I learned a lot about daily life in Ancient Egypt such as the fact that everyone, even kids, had to drink beer (or wine if they were rich), because the water from the River Nile was contaminated. They traded for fruit, juice, beer and wine and other goods in the marketplace. Egyptians wore little clothing, for the desert was hot, as you might imagine. I really enjoyed the exhibit and I definitely recommend going on the Inside Ancient Egypt tour if you are visiting the Field Museum.