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

Although the MBA utilitarian implements are plentiful, these numbers are skewed
by the Cypriot data. As previously noted, Middle Cypriot metal tools are chiefly
preserved in mortuary contexts and the bulk of them (63%) are utilitarian implements. In
fact, of the 498 known utilitarian tools in the dataset, 388 are from Cyprus. These Cypriot
objects were produced for prestige purposes (especially those deposited in the mortuary
realm) rather than for their abilities as all-purpose cutting implements. Significantly
fewer tools from this category exist in the LC period, and the proportion of these tools in
the LC tool collection declined by over 40% from the previous era (Figs. 3.15a, b; 3.20d).
The irregularity of utilitarian objects in the LC era is attributed, in part, to fewer
excavated tombs from that period, yet genuine changes in the Cypriot consumption
preferences were also at play. The Cypriot and Anatolian data both show a decrease in
popularity among each region’s tool collections over time, and these patterns contrast the
steady selection preferences within the Aegean. The total sum of utilitarian implements
as well as their regional frequencies emphasizes the great popularity and broad
distribution of this tool category in the Aegean.
This regional diversity is also apparent on a smaller scale. For instance, the
Mycenaean cleaver is found throughout the Aegean world at the end of the second
millennium, yet it is conspicuously absent in Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean.
Since cleavers are found as far east as the Dodecanese (Rhodes and Kos), one would
think that these blades also would have made their way to Cyprus and the eastern
Mediterranean, especially in light of the plethora of LBA Aegean elements recognized in
Cyprus and Syria-Palestine. 250
250 Catling 1964, 106-107; Iakovidis 1982, 223.
101