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

mortuary contexts, thus confirming a significant social shift in mortuary behavior during
the second millennium, not to mention changing predilections in tool selection.
Considering the examples from all regions and periods, the contextual distribution for
single/flat axes, in order of greatest quantity, is as follows: settlements (118 examples),
burials (110), hoards (86), unknown or surface contexts (50), and cult or sanctuary
contexts (4).
Although the consumption of single/flat axes declined in Cyprus by the LBA, the
preference for these tools remained steady from the MBA to the LBA in Syria-Palestine
and Anatolia. The ax’s distribution in the Aegean reveals a notable increase in its
selection during the LBA. The simple design of the tool leaves little room for
embellishment or variation, making it difficult to identify regionally-specific traits. The
distinctive regional distributions of the single/flat axes imply a shared craft tradition
between Cyprus and Syria-Palestine, but the Levantine blades were usually longer (Fig.
4.7). The average length of single axes falls between 11.5 and 17 cm, while the cutting
edge width hovers around 4.6 cm (Fig. 4.7). This simple ax is not as popular in Anatolia
as it is in Cyprus or Syria-Palestine, perhaps because a similar product, the
trunnion/lugged ax, had already been adopted in Anatolia. Likewise, the propensity for
double axes in the Aegean probably precluded any need for single/flat axes.
Consequently, single/flat axes share a basic regional pattern with shaft-hole axes; they are
prominent in Syria-Palestine and Cyprus (and to some extent Anatolia) yet comparatively
rare in the Aegean. Conversely, double axes, omnipresent in the Aegean, are anomalies in
the eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia.
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