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

ships are considered jointly, there are only a few LBA carpentry/masonry tool forms
(such ax-hammers, double-adzes, and hammer-adzes) absent from a shipwreck context.
Similarities between tools on shipwrecks and those found in metal hoards on land are
significant and explored in depth in Chapter 5.
X. Conclusions about the functional tool categories
The preceding overview of the different functional tool categories demonstrates
that wood- and stone-working tools were the most frequent tool type in the second
millennium BC. While stone tools continued to be used for certain activities, carpenters
and masons benefitted greatly from the inception of metal, and particularly bronze, types.
The increased efficiency and capability of metal tools to cut and/or pare wood and stone
was a major reason why they were the preferred tool type cross-regionally. The
importance of these implements warrants a detailed investigation, and the following two
chapters examine the wood- and stone-working tools more closely than the broad trends
highlighted here. In Chapter 4, the carpentry/masonry tool types are presented and the
regional preferences and distributions for each kind of implement are discussed; the tool
consumption choices are also considered on a site by site basis. These inquiries elucidate
local and interregional trends—and connections—for the tool industries and presumably
craftsmanship. Chapter 5 appraises the various contexts for the carpentry and masonry
implements (particularly those from hoards and shipwrecks) and identifies potential tool
kits of craftspersons.
Future work may focus on the agricultural, metallurgical, utilitarian, and small
crafting tools in a more substantial manner than the trends that have been observed here.
Of all the tool categories, agricultural implements have the most striking chronological
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