Middle and Late Bronze Age Metal Tools from the Aegean, Eastern ...

late bronze age palace archives of Crete. First the archives record working oxen, and the
maintenance of specialist work animals suggests large-scale agricultural concerns.” 178
Pairs of oxen are indeed listed in the Knossos Ce, Ch and C tablets. 179 Moreover, a
Minoan hieroglyphic sign (#27) is interpreted as a plow, confirming the importance of the
implement in the MBA. 180 Although a simple device, the plow was “required to break up
the soils for planting and to insure that the crops planted receive enough moisture from
the rain.” 181 One might expect the Aegean to have produced more metal plowing
equipment, for the plow is attested as early as the EBA with terracotta yoked-oxen
figurines from the Corinthia (Tsoungiza). 182 On Cyprus, the plow is depicted as early as
the third millennium with the terracotta Vounous model, but metal plowshares did not
appear on the island until the 13 th and 12 th centuries. Tillage with plows does not require
the tool’s end to be metal, as articulated by Catling: “It is to be assumed that for many
centuries, ploughs carried no metal share, the scratch point was perhaps fire-hardened to
help it withstand the wear and tear of use.” 183
Apparently, wood plows were not replaced
with metal versions in the Aegean Bronze Age. It is unclear why bronze plowshares were
ignored by Aegean peoples when such implements were regularly used in the eastern
Mediterranean. Based upon storage capacities and palatial records, the Aegean
agricultural system operated successfully without the excessive employment of metal
implements.
178
Halstead 1992, 112. Also see, Halstead 1995a, 18.
179
Halstead 1999a, 319.
180
Hansen 1988, 51, figure 3.
181
Pullen 1992, 48.
182
Pullen 1992, 48-53. Halstead 1995a, 11.
183
Catling 1964, 81; Pullen 1992, 48-53.
81