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

quantities, actual smiths are mentioned only in the Pylian tablets. 231 The Pylian Jn series
comprises 27 tablets that record bronze allocation from the palace to various smiths. This
process is called the ta-ra-si-ja system; the term appears regularly with craft production
and means “an amount of raw material weighed out and issued for processing.” 232 In
documenting this ta-ra-si-ja scheme, the Linear B tablets preserve smith names, their
hometowns and the amount of bronze distributed to each smith. 233 Based upon the variety
of place names, smiths were well dispersed throughout the landscape. Roughly one-third
of the smiths did not receive a ta-ra-si-ja portion. Of the smith names preserved on
tablets, 193 were active (having received an allotment) and 81 were inactive. 234 Listing
active and inactive smiths demonstrates that bronze working may have been seasonal or
periodic work, depending on production needs and the procurement of the raw materials.
The average allotment of metal consisted of 3 to 4 kilograms, but a smith on Jn 601
received 12 kg while another smith only acquired 1.5 kg of bronze. 235 Chadwick
reconstructed the original workforce of metal smiths in the Pylian region to around 400,
based upon the large amount of bronze allocations such as Ja 749 (1046 kg). 236
Clearly,
the quantity of bronze smiths in the Linear B records does not coincide with the scarcity
of evidence for metalworking on the Greek mainland.
Iakovidis argues that Mycenaean “smiths were numerous and worked in groups”
and could be either attached or independent, and either sedentary or mobile.
231
Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 140. Killen (1987, 68-70) interprets the Linear B records from Knossos and
Pylos, however, as reflecting a very similar bronze-working industry under both palaces; Smith 1993.
232
Killen 2001, 161; Killen’s quote is adapted from Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 69-115. Also see, Killen
1987, 62.
233
Uchitel 1990, 195-199; Smith 1993.
234
Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 140.
235
Killen 2001, 173.
236
Ventris and Chadwick 1973, 140ff, 509; Killen 2001, 173; Gillis 1997, 506 note 5.
237 Iakovidis 1982, 226.
237
Of course
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