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

carpentry/masonry tools, dominated the contextual choices of the LH period. 289
The LBA
mainland in fact produced the greatest number of hoarded carpentry/masonry tools.
Although double axes and ax-adzes occur in the LH period, other combination tools, so
prominent on Crete and Cyprus, are conspicuously absent.
Greek island patterns (Fig. 3.31c): The assemblage of carpentry/masonry tools
from the Greek islands is minimal, though much more frequent in the LBA than the
MBA. Chisels and axes (both double and single types) were the preferred implements of
this region, while drills and saws are rare. Single/flat and trunnion/lugged axes, typical of
MBA Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean, appear on the islands only during the
LBA. Considering some of the important settlement sites in the Cyclades (e.g. Akrotiri,
Phylakopi, and Ayia Irini), the comparatively low quantity of carpentry and masonry
tools is somewhat disappointing.
Cypriot patterns (Fig. 3.31d): The sum and proportion of Cypriot
carpentry/masonry tools increased slightly from the MBA to the LBA (Fig. 3.26a, b).
There are 167 MC carpentry and masonry tools, represented by five major tool types (flat
axes, shaft-hole axes, chisels, drills, and saws); most of these implements came to light in
mortuary contexts. In the LBA, settlement and hoard contexts are favored over burials in
the deposition of tools. MBA implements are distributed across medium and minor level
sites, while LBA carpentry/masonry implements are acquired and utilized almost
exclusively at larger urban centers. Flat/single and shaft-hole axes constitute more than
80% of the MBA tools. A wider assortment of tool forms is recognized in the LBA.
289 This percentage does not include a group of tools, found together in a burial, that resemble a hoard. The
Tomb of the Tripods (LH IIIA2-B1) at Mycenae produced 20 of the carpentry/masonry tools from burials.
There were 19 double axes within this single tomb. Since they occur in an obvious mortuary context, the
tools were intentionally grouped together, effectively acting like a hoard, though there was no intention to
retrieve the tools.
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