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

is even more striking when compared to the relatively high proportion of Aegean and
Anatolian metalworking objects in the MBA (Fig. 3.10a, b).
Although there is no standard correlation between an industry’s level of
production and the percentage of preserved metallurgical tools, the consumption patterns
of metalworking tools are meaningful. The LC metallurgical tool repertoire is the most
diversified, and several Cypriot tools, like charcoal shovels, furnace spatulas, metal
molds and a crucible scraper (Fig. 3.14d), are not attested elsewhere. 225 The frequency
and variety of these Cypriot tools indicates an advanced and dispersed metallurgical
industry, at least for the LC era. Once again, Cyprus is unique in that its hoards are a
common context for metalworking tools; this phenomenon is not as prominent in other
regions. Some foundry hoards contain metallurgical tools, and such implements, when
found in that context, may represent a smith’s tool kit. Metallurgical tools appear
regularly in large urban centers (like Enkomi), possibly reflecting authoritative control
over metallurgical activity and production. 226 Urban localities are more likely to have
traces of metallurgical workshops than rural settings. 227
Smiths regularly worked at
urbanized sites for several reasons, including but not limited to the following: 1) craft
production may have depended upon or been subjugated to centralized, palatial control;
2) more densely populated areas would have provided a better market to sell finished
225
A spatula from Gelidonya may have functioned like a crucible scraper, which is identified at Pyla,
Cyprus.
226
The Linear B tablets from Pylos give us an idea about the control and allocation of metal in Mycenaean
Messenia. See Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 140ff. and Uchitel 1990. But also see, Costin 1991, 3-18 for a
theoretical framework for organized production and how it may look in state-level societies.
227
This claim is pertinent to the evidence from Cyprus, especially in the LC IIC-IIIA periods. The Linear B
records at Pylos, however, convey a different scenario for the mainland. The Pylian system of ta-ra-si-ja
indicates that bronze smiths were partially dependent on the palace but not operational within it. Nearly all
“Hither province” town names are associated with bronze working (see Galaty and Parkinson 2007, 5).
This suggests that small scale metalworking facilities should be evident at provincial sites like Nichoria or
Katsimigas. In total, there are 14 different place names for the hometowns of smiths and 9 of these occur
just once, meaning that some smiths probably lived in rural, otherwise unimportant areas.
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