METAL AGE AND ITS PROBLEMS IN SOUTH KALIMANTAN

. Metal age in Indonesia is the period when humans were familiar with metalworking. In general, metal tools were used for either everyday or ritual purposes. However, there are also metal tools which are used as ideofacts as well as technofacts. The results of a number of archaeological researches in South Kalimantan indicate that data of metal tools are very few. Therefore, the determination on the earliest use of metal tools and the varieties of its use has not been comprehensively understood. This paper discusses a number of archaeological researches in Kalimantan in the effort to identify problems related to metal culture. The research method used in this study was descriptive and inductive reasoning. Data were collected by studying research reports of the Centre for Archeology, Banjarmasin, literatures on metal culture in Indonesia as well as metal tools references of the collection of Lambung Mangkurat Museum. The results showed that metal age sites in South Kalimantan are settlements indicated by material cultures of fragments of iron tools or iron slag. Besides fragments of iron, neither the complete artefacts nor the chronology, have been identified yet.