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

in the Brunnen 212 hoard was converted from a double adze (Plate 4.40). Its converted
hammer end appears to have been heated and slightly melted. Otherwise, it is hard to
imagine how the tool became so deformed and spheroid in shape. There is another
possible an implement that was modified into an adze-hammer. The pointed end of a
pick-adze from Rogdia (Crete) is blunt, prompting Evely to note that it was used as a
hammer. 416
While the tool was created as a pick-adze, it may have ended up as an adze-
hammer through constant use.
F4: Pick-adzes (Plate 4.41a, b)
Pick-adzes are a rare and unattested aside from a few examples on Crete.
Comparable to “modern mattocks, one blade is pointed, the other, intended for chopping
and digging, is flat and sharpened.” 417 As with the other shafted double-sided tools, the
pick-adze employed round shaft holes. The tool can reach a substantial size, as a 37.7 cm
long example from Ayia Triadha testifies (Plate 4.41b), but the average pick-adze length
(20.7 cm) is smaller than that of the Cretan double adze (26.1 cm). The pick-adze did not
exist in the Protopalatial period; according to Shaw, the tool belonged to the Neopalatial
and the Late Palace periods and was useful in agricultural digging and stone quarrying. 418
Deshayes suggested an agricultural interpretation for the tool, yet traces of pick marks
(recognized by Shaw) in the Ayia Irini quarry and a Knossian chamber tomb demonstrate
the tool’s versatility. 419 Other pick marks are purportedly found on Cretan masonry. 420
It
is uncertain why the tool was not adopted by other regions or was more visible on Crete.
416
Evely 1993, 71 entry 3, 72.
417
Shaw 2009, 41.
418
Shaw (2009, 41) asserts that two pick-adzes from Ayia Triadha date to the Late Palace period; these
tools were previously dated to the Neopalatial period by Evely.
419
Shaw 2009, 41-42.
420
Evely 1993, 72.
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