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

Syria-Palestine. The status of the single/flat ax was consistent in both periods, yet the
preference for the shaft-hole ax declined after the MBA. Such a regression was also
evident with the Anatolian shaft-hole axes. The LBA Syro-Palestinian tool repertoire
largely consists of types attested in the MBA (e.g. single/flat axes, shaft-hole axes,
double axes and chisels). Saws are the only kind of Syro-Palestinian tool employed in the
MBA but not found in the LBA. Only four new tool forms occur in the Syro-Palestinian
LBA: drills, ax-hammers, ax-adzes and shaft-hole adzes. The introduction of these forms
in LBA Syria-Palestine parallels their appearance in Anatolia and Cyprus. The drills,
adze forms, and ax-hammers collectively makeup only 13% of the LBA Syro-Palestinian
repertoire, thereby confirming that the majority of the region’s LBA tools were a
continuation of earlier forms. The preference for indigenous tool types was a pattern also
detected with the Cypriot and Anatolian data. All three regions showed steady tendencies
in the tool choices and traditions throughout most of the second millennium. Only a
minor yet noticeable portion of these LBA assemblages were new tool forms (e.g. adzes,
drills and various combination tools). These diachronic conclusions are not applicable to
the Aegean, thus revealing disparities between the Greek and the eastern
Mediterranean/Anatolian tool industries.
Shipwreck patterns (Fig. 3.31g): Having examined the variety of tool types
throughout the MBA and LBA regional assemblages, one can better appreciate the cache
of carpentry/masonry tools from the Gelidonya and Uluburun shipwrecks. Chisels also
were found off the coast of Israel at the site of Kibbutz Hahotrim, yet this site may
represent a scatter of objects rather than a shipwreck. Axes, chisels and adzes occur on
both ships, while drills and a saw are found at Uluburun but not Gelidonya. When the two
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