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

consumption patterns, above all, indicate localized preferences for indigenous tool types,
but fluctuations in the proportions of certain tools are detectable.
The proportional percentage of two prominent MBA tools (the shaft-hole ax and
the lugged ax) declined during the Anatolian LBA. Collectively, these tools represented
32.7% of the MBA tool repertoire, while they accounted for 14.8% of the later
assemblage. The percentage for the single/flat ax was also cut in half by the LBA, from
9.5% to 4.5%. The popularity and decline of this ax form parallels the implement’s fate
on Cyprus. Single/flat, shaft-hole and lugged axes are thus three MBA forms that were
preserved into the Anatolian LBA, but the popularity of these ax types clearly waned.
The introduction and/or increased consumption of drills, adzes and various combination
tools in the Anatolian LBA are also recognized in the Aegean and Cyprus. Known from
the MBA, the Anatolian double ax is better attested in the LBA. Chisels (including
socketed types) maintained their status as the preferred carpentry/masonry tool from the
MBA to the LBA, even increasing their share from 50% to 69.7%. The preference for
chisels in Anatolia is additionally verified by their high proportion among the non-
datable, general second millennium tools (70.8%).
Syro-Palestinian patterns (Fig. 3.31f): The carpentry/masonry tool patterns from
Syria-Palestine are similar to the observations made for Anatolia. Although Syria-
Palestine produced more carpentry/ masonry tools in the LBA than the MBA, the
frequency of the implements within the regional assemblage declined over those periods
from 83% to 57% (Fig. 3.26a, b). Despite this fall in percentage, the ubiquity of these
tools in the later period is still evident. As with the Cypriot MBA tool assemblage,
single/flat axes and shaft-hole axes were the favored utensils in early second millennium
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