R. von Heine-Gcldern distinguishes at least two groups among the Groups the megaliths found in Indonesia. To the oldest group, the monumental, belong primarily the menhirs, dolmens, and terraced burial-mounds. These date from the Neolithic period, an era when polished rectangular axes were also known. Examples of the more recent group, the dynamic, arc to be found amongst the worked stones mentioned above.

The oldest megaliths undoubtedly date from the Neolithic period. Several megaliths, however, have been found in regard to which it can be ascertained with certainty that they were not made until a time when metal had already been known in Indonesia for some centuries. Thus iron imp1ements were found in a stone sarcophagus in eastern Java beside glazzed Chinese pottery. This even made it possible to date the sarcophagus: it must have originated in the ninth century A.D. at the earliest. Iron objects were also found in various stone cist graves in the mountains on the south coast of central Java. Metal, after all, had already been known for a long time on Nias, Stimba. and Flores. On the basis of the above it can be said that Meglithic culture did indeed originate in the Neolithic period, but that it continued in some places to form part of the living culture at a time when the stone age had given way to the age of bronze and it on.