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

and paring, but the exact utilization of the implement is unclear. Schaeffer suggested that
the tools were for mining prospection, while Deshayes, Catling, Branigan and Evely
acknowledge the all-purpose potential of the tool but ultimately advocate for a carpentry
function, especially for small-scale jobs. 402 Likewise, Shaw asserted that the tool “no
doubt shaped planks and beams” but he does not exclude the possibility of “stonecutting
and digging.” 403
The association of the tool with woodworking seems justified, yet its
potential as a masonry implement cannot be confirmed.
The ax-adze reached its zenith during the LBA, but three Cretan examples belong
to the MBA, including a MM I-II object from Chamaizi. The tool form, in fact, occurs as
early as the EBA II period in the Kythnos (Early Cycladic II) and Eutresis (EH II)
404
carpenter hoards. During the second millennium, the implement is found in each study
region (Table 4.13), thus partially confirming Catling’s observation that “[t]he tool is
widely distributed, in a variety of forms, from the Indus valley to Central Europe; it
seems very probably to have had its origin somewhere in Mesopotamia.” 405
The
implement has been found a variety of contexts including hoards (7 examples), burials
(2), settlements (9), shipwrecks (4) a cultic/sanctuary site (1), and contexts without a
clear provenience such as surface finds (10). Though found in each region, ax-adzes are
more frequent on Crete and Cyprus than elsewhere, a pattern akin to the double adzes.
Regional total MBA LBA General 2 nd millennium
Crete 12 3 6 3
Mainland 5 - 2 3
Cyprus 9 - 9 -
Anatolia 1 - 1 -
402
Schaeffer 1952, 44; Deshayes 1960, 289; Catling 1964, 91; Branigan 1974, 133; Evely 1993, 68.
403
Shaw 2009, 41.
404
Kythnos hoard: Renfrew 1967, Branigan 1969; Fitton 1989. Eutresis hoard: Goldman 1931, 215;
Branigan 1969.
405
Catling 1964, 91. For a full account of the distribution of the implement from Iran to the Danube, see
Deshayes 1960, 279-291.
171