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

during the MBA and LBA, highlighting consumption choices by region and time period.
Numerous tool forms—including chisels, drills, adzes, and combination tools—were
more regularly used during the LBA than the preceding period. Although chisels were
common in the MBA, their frequency increased by 17% in the LBA. Solid-cast drills
were also attested in the MBA, but they were not popularized until the LBA. Adzes (both
single and combination tools with adze ends) are traditionally a LBA tool, for only a few
adze types have been recognized in the early second millennium. Double axes and ax-
adzes are relatively irregular MBA tools, but they became quite prominent later. Other
combination tools such as double-adzes, ax-hammers, hammer-adzes and pick-adzes did
not appear until the LBA. In terms of quantifiable numbers, MBA combination tools
consist of 28 examples (or 6.2% of the MBA carpentry/masonry repertoire) while the
LBA has 331 items (or 22.9% of the LBA assemblage). 288
Evidently, the double-sided
implements represent one of the preferred tool choices in the second half of the
millennium.
The proportion—as a percentage—for some tools (e.g. saws, lugged/trunnion
axes, and socketed chisels) was consistent throughout the second millennium. As these
particular implements have tight geographic distributions, their steady occurrence
signifies that local preferences often did not change. The consumption percentage and
quantity of at least two tool forms (e.g. the single/flat ax and the shaft-hole/collared ax)
declined from the MBA to LBA. Apparently, the esteem for these implements diminished
when other items were first introduced during the LBA.
288 The number of combination tools from the general 2 nd millennium reveals a similar frequency to the
LBA examples, suggesting that these implements are more likely to date to the LBA than the MBA.
119