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

metallurgical tools is their general absence from the Late Helladic mainland, despite the
evidence for a high consumption of metal objects—including 947 tools—within the
region and period. This distribution coincides with the lack of excavated metallurgical
workshops on the mainland, and this picture is troublesome in light of the Pylian Jn series
tablets that document the palatial allocation and control of copper resources to bronze
smiths throughout Messenia. 290
Knives comprise the majority of utilitarian implements, and this category has
distinctive chronological and geographical patterns. The tools are prevalent in the Middle
Cypriot period, appearing mostly in burials. The concentration of these objects on MBA
Cyprus reflects local exploitation of the copper resources, specifically by new elites who
consumed and deposited metal as a sign of their social status and prestige. Utilitarian
tools on Cyprus are not as common in the LBA once the island’s social structure was
better established. Utilitarian implements are popular objects in the Aegean, particularly
on the mainland and the islands. The Cretan tools, though well attested, are not as
prevalent in comparison to the proportions found on the mainland and the islands. The
tools occur in Anatolia and Syria-Palestine as well, but their distributions are not as
distinctive as observed on Cyprus or in the Aegean.
The catch-all category of small crafting tools perhaps requires the most attention
for future investigations. The function of these objects could not be determined but they
were likely employed in a task of production and should be considered as tools. Awls and
small pointed objects best represent the group, and a detailed study, using ethnographic
and experimental parallels, would be useful for discerning the implements of the various
small crafts. From the distributions examined here, there seems to be broad regional
290 Smith 1993.
127