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

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D3: Single/flat adzes (Plate 4.16)<br />

The single/flat adze undoubtedly developed out of <strong>the</strong> single/flat ax, leading<br />

Catling to observe that <strong>the</strong> “two forms are closely related.” 370 Yet scholars may be<br />

reluctant to label a blade an ax or an adze. 371 The importance of adzes to carpentry is<br />

readily apparent in <strong>the</strong> Egyptian evidence, for adze blades are well preserved <strong>and</strong> are<br />

commonly depicted in scenes of carpentry <strong>and</strong> shipbuilding. 372 Only 29 single/flat adzes<br />

are listed in <strong>the</strong> dataset, far less than <strong>the</strong> number of axes (Table 4.6; for an example <strong>from</strong><br />

Enkomi, see Plate 4.16). Some single/flat adzes are perhaps misidentified as axes,<br />

meaning that <strong>the</strong> adze type may be more prevalent than <strong>the</strong> current data convey. Catling<br />

recognized <strong>the</strong> rarity of single/flat adzes on Cyprus <strong>and</strong> attributed <strong>the</strong> type’s origin to<br />

Egypt or <strong>the</strong> Near East. 373<br />

While single/flat axes were multi-functional in <strong>the</strong>ir chopping<br />

operations, adzes were probably restricted to woodworking <strong>and</strong> specifically used to pare<br />

a surface smooth.<br />

Regional total MBA LBA General 2 nd millennium<br />

Crete 3 1 2 -<br />

Mainl<strong>and</strong> 1 - 1 -<br />

Isl<strong>and</strong>s 0 - - -<br />

Cyprus 5 1 4 -<br />

Anatolia 2 - 2 -<br />

Syria-Palestine 0 - - -<br />

Shipwrecks 18 - 18 -<br />

Total 29 2 27 0<br />

Table 4.6: Single/flat adze distribution<br />

The consumption of single/flat adzes took place in regions where shaft-hole adzes<br />

were unavailable: specifically Crete, <strong>the</strong> mainl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Cyprus. The existence of single-<br />

bladed adze implements in Cyprus <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Aegean</strong> is unsurprising, since adze profiles<br />

370 Catling 1964, 86.<br />

371 For Petrie’s helpful distinction between axes <strong>and</strong> adzes, see footnote 347.<br />

372 Petrie 1917, 16-18, plates XV-XVII; Scheel 1989, 49-50, figures 53-54, 57; Killen 2000, 355. For<br />

shipbuilding scenes with adzes <strong>from</strong> Old Kingdom Egypt, see: Rodgers 1992; Steffy 1994, 30-31, Pl. 3-8.<br />

373 Catling 1964, 87. Shaw (2009, 40) also notes that single/flat adzes are atypical on Crete.<br />

155

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