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

surely one reason for the similar tool proportions in the LBA. The shipwreck metal
accumulations closely parallel the Cypriot and Aegean caches; this resemblance suggests
that the shipwreck metals should be considered hoard-like assemblages. Evidently,
comparable tool selections were made for metal assemblages in Cyprus, the Greek
mainland and on the ships. The LBA tool preferences within the Cretan, Anatolian, and
Syria-Palestinian implement assemblages illustrates that those carpentry/masonry
implements were even more popular than on Cyprus or the Greek mainland.
Over half of the carpentry/masonry tools were discovered at large sites,
comparable to the agricultural and metallurgical distributions (Fig. 3.27). Although the
carpentry/masonry utensils are well dispersed throughout the study region, their
concentration in large urban centers questions whether differing levels of society could
obtain the tools. What factors governed the dispersal of the carpentry/masonry
implements, and can distributions demonstrate that a tool’s availability and craft work
depended upon an urban center? These are natural, but difficult, questions that arise from
probing the tool data. An overwhelming number of tools appear in settlement contexts,
while hoards represent a secondary context (Fig. 3.28). Burials are the third prominent
setting, and the depositional behavior for this context shifts from the MBA and LBA. Of
the MBA carpentry/masonry tools, 34% (155 out of 455) were found in burials while
only 9.1% (132 out of 1444) of the LBA carpentry/masonry implements were attributed
to mortuary contexts (see Figs. 3.31a-f). Carpentry/masonry tools are rare in the Shaft
Graves and other contexts from the early Late Helladic period. The implements are more
common in Mycenaean burials of the 14 th and 13 th centuries, but their existence as LH III
burials goods remained atypical. The depositional shift in wood- and stone-working
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