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

Chapter 4: Carpentry and masonry tools: types and distributions by site
Of the functional tool categories reviewed in Chapter 3, the carpentry/masonry
implements are the most common and their patterns of consumption deserve a closer
look. This chapter thus presents, in three sections, a detailed analysis of the types and
distributions of second millennium tools. The first describes the different kinds of
carpentry/masonry implements, records their dissemination by region and period, and
considers variations in tool size. The second section offers a site-by-site comparison of
the quantity and types of tools recovered in the archaeological record. Through this
method of analysis, important preferences in each area become evident. Several regions
showed a large concentration of tools at one site, while Crete demonstrated a more even
distribution of tools among its major sites. The chapter concludes by summarizing the
broad regional tool traditions as reflected in the selection of carpentry/masonry
implements. By considering the nature of each tool type, as well as the site-by-site
overview, one may identify specific implements as distinctive to particular regions.
Subsequently, the level of cross-cultural interaction, based on tool distributions, may be
evaluated.
I. Carpentry and Masonry tool types
The presentation of carpentry and masonry tools here does not represent the entire
assembly of implements that were available, as some are absent from the archaeological
record. A few implements, like the tubular drill and pendulum saw, are deduced from
their markings left on worked materials, and these important implements are discussed in
this chapter. Other necessary tools, such as levers, crowbars, and measuring and/or
marking instruments, likely existed but are unattested in the present data. Devices
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