POHAKU KA LUAHINE, MOANALUA VALLEY, OAHU:

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley, Oahu. Showing one deeply

pecked anthropomorph and some random markings and grooves

on the top. Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Pohaku Ka Luahine is said to translate as "the rock of the old woman". It was reportedly given this name after an incident in which a child broke kapu by crying at a religious ceremony, an offense punishable by death. The child’s grandmother ran up the valley with it and hid behind the stone until the kapu expired and the warriors stopped searching for them.

 

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley, Oahu. Showing 

random markings and grooves on the top.

Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Pohaku Ka Luahine, Moanalua Valley, Oahu. Showing two faintly

pecked anthropomorphs and the trunk of the mango tree it sits under.

Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Wikipedia gives a short history of the Moanalua valley. “Samuel Mills Damon inherited the ahupuaʻa (uplands-to-sea tract) of Moanalua in 1884 from Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose husband Charles Reed Bishop was a business partner of Damon. Before her, since the lands were won in battle by Kamehameha I they passed from Kameʻeiamoku to Ulumāheihei Hoapili, then to Prince Lot Lot Kapuāiwa (who became King Kamehameha V), and Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani. Damon later became one of the first trustees of the Kamehameha Schools established by the Bishops. The Damon estate sold much of Moanalua to commercial and residential developers in 1956.” Formerly part of Samuel Mills Damon estate, the trail follows the old estate carriage road up the valley from the Moanalua Valley park.

Old carriage road hiking trail, Moanalua Valley, Oahu.

Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

Cobbles of the old carriage road hiking trail, Moanalua

Valley, Oahu. Photo: Peter Faris, October 23, 2010.

With cousin Rob as my guide we hiked up the cobbles of the old carriage road the requisite seven crossings of the stream and there on the right under the mango tree just as described was the petroglyph boulder Pohaku Ka Luahine. Earlier records credit this boulder with twenty one anthropomorphic figures as well as a 90-point konane game board (James 2010:49). Unfortunately it has received a certain amount of vandalism and appears to have suffered from weathering erosion as well. A few traditional style Hawaiian figures are visible on the sides of the stone. I could not really see the grid of pits of the konane game board supposedly pecked into the top. This is a checkers-like game played with black and white pebbles by Hawaiians and examples have been found with one hundred and more pits pecked into boulders. Given the dim light under the jungle canopy there were few options for visual clues from side-lighting, the surface of the boulder appears fairly uniform, and much of what can be seen did not come through on photos.


It was certainly a lovely hike through the jungle though, well worth it for the exercise alone, and to also see the rock art made it a really special afternoon.

Reference:

James, Van
2010      Ancient Sites of Oahu: Revised Edition, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu.