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

Cretan patterns (Fig. 3.31a): The relatively high proportion of carpentry and
masonry tools during the MM period coincides with the establishment of the initial
Cretan palaces (Fig. 3.26a, b). The frequency of the tools was even greater during the
LBA, but only minor modifications occurred in the tool selections over time. Many of the
same implements were employed in both periods, though double axes and chisels were
more regular in the later era. Saws are found with comparable frequencies at either time,
while one tool, the shaft-hole ax, became obsolete by the LBA. Tool distributions
according to site size and context were steady in both periods. There is one minor
contextual difference: hoards and settlements are the typical contexts in the LBA while
tools were more evenly distributed in the MBA. The consistency of the Cretan tool types
contradicts the distributions found on the Greek mainland.
Greek mainland patterns (Fig. 3.31b): Metal carpentry and masonry tools are
strikingly rare in the MH period, with only 16 examples and five different types. There is
an extraordinary increase of metal implements by the LH era, both in the sheer quantity
and the variety of tools. Double axes, chisels and single axes occur in both periods, but
saws, ax-adzes, drills, socketed chisels, shaft-hole axes and trunnion or lugged axes do
not make their initial appearance until the LBA. Except for drills which occur often in the
early Mycenaean period, the other new tools date chiefly to the LH III period. A more
detailed chronological division of the region’s carpentry and masonry implements is
presented in the following chapter. In addition to the new tool forms in the LBA,
significant modifications in depositional behaviors appear. In the LBA, most
carpentry/masonry tools were found at large urban centers; these types of sites were
absent from the MH record. Hoards, containing more than 40% of the LH
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