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

popularity of shafted double-ended tools on Cyprus, it is unexpected that ax-hammers
were absent from the Cypriot repertoire (Table 4.15). On the other hand, Cypriot
examples of the adze-hammer—a tool comparable to the ax-hammer—do exist.
Regional total MBA LBA General 2 nd millennium
Crete 2 1 - 1
Mainland - - - -
Cyprus 4 - 4 -
Anatolia - - - -
Syria-Palestine - - - -
Shipwrecks - - - -
Total 6 1 4 1
Table 4.16: Adze-Hammer distribution
Of the double-ended hammer types, adze-hammers are very rare with only six
examples (Plates 4.38-40). Like the double adzes, adze-hammers are restricted to Crete
and Cyprus (Table 4.16). These adze-hammers, with circular shaft holes, lack any
standardization, for they were formed by manipulating ax-adzes or double adzes. The
adze-hammers two other tool types. Four adze-hammers were originally ax-adzes, while
two adze-hammers were previously double adzes. Catling believed that the tool arrived in
Cyprus in LC IIIA with the supposed migrants from the Aegean, but the Cypriot adze-
hammers were modified from existing tools and probably not imported. 415
The adze-hammer from Enkomi’s Trésor de Bronzes is disproportionally
balanced around the shaft hole, with more weight being given to the adze end (Plate
4.38). The hammer end is close to the shaft hole and its narrow, rectangular blunt surface
is clearly the result of a truncated ax end. Furthermore, the surface of the hammer end is
somewhat jagged, probably further indication that this end was intentionally cut into its
present form. The adze-hammer from the Trésor de Bronzes compares favorably to a
complete ax-adze from the same metal cache (Plate 4.39). An oddly shaped adze-hammer
415 Catling 1964, 93.
175