Sumba Island has maintained a megalithic tradition from the Neolithic times to the present day and is one of the few remaining truly megalithic cultures. Sumba Island Nobility and those of wealth still use megalithic stone slabs to construct human forms or carvings of foliage, animals, sea or other mythical creatures. This statue depicting a chicken is an example of a Sumba Island penji or headstone, in animal form and of considerable age carved in calciferous volcanic tuff.