Signs of a Divine Reality: The Materiality of Bird Cook Stones (Pohaku 'Eho) from the Dry Interior Uplands and Mountainous Regions of the Island of Hawai'i

Abstract

One of the most enigmatic material culture items used by native Hawaiians in the past are bird cook stones variously referred to in the literature as 'eho, pohaku 'eho or pohaku 'eho manu. The "type" specimens were collected in 1885-86 by J.S. Emerson on the island of Hawai'i. The Emerson Collection and other collections made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as ethnographic accounts, indicate the use of both natural, unmodified pebbles and pecked, ground and/or polished stones resembling small pestles and phallic emblems. A review of the ethnographic literature and early collections reveals some of the problems in identifying bird cook stones and the probable reasons why they have not been more commonly recognized in archaeological sites. The salient characteristics of an assemblage of artifacts interpreted as bird cook stones from the Pu'u Kalepeamoa Site on Mauna Kea are described and briefly compared to selected assemblages of morphologically similar artifacts from sites in the Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA), that until recently were most often described as pestles. The formal properties of these objects, their archaeological contexts, and the term 'eho itself suggest that the manufactured variety of bird cook stones had symbolic meanings or uses not previously known, or at least not described in the ethnographic literature.