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

masons and carpenters at Mallia is bolstered by the earliest monumental structure on the
island at Chrysolakkos, with its orthostate facades and drilled circular mortises, and
confirmed by the advanced level of masonry and carpentry of the Hypostyle Crypt and
Quartier Mu buildings. The workshops at Quartier Mu further demonstrate the
concentration of craft activity at Protopalatial Mallia. The site yielded several saw
fragments, yet this tool form is not found at other MM sites. Double axes are widely
distributed in the Protopalatial period, as they are found at each of the listed sites except
for Palaikastro. The shaft-hole axes from Palaikastro seem to be an eastern Mediterranean
or Anatolian tradition, and the tool does not occur elsewhere in the MM period. Outside
of Mallia, wood- and stone-working tools have not been found in abundance. This is
particularly true of the other Protopalatial palaces, namely Phaistos and Knossos.
MM site Total carpentry
- masonry tools
Tool types
Mallia 32 13 saws; 8 chisels; 3 solid drills; 2 double axes; 1 trunnion/
lugged ax; 1 single/flat ax; 1 single/flat adze; 1 adzehammer,
1 ax-adze; 1 hollow cylinder (drill?)
Palaikastro 12 11 shaft-hole axes; 1 ax-adze
Chamaizi 4 2 double axes; 1 ax-adze; 1 single/flat adze
Samba 4 3 chisels; 1 double ax
Phaistos 4 3 double axes; 1 chisel
Ayia Triadha 2 2 double axes
Kamilari 2 1 double ax; 1 drill or borer
Knossos 1 1 double ax
Table 4.20: MM carpentry/masonry tool distribution by site (sites with one tool are excluded unless
they are major palatial or urban sites)
Sites from the Cretan LBA:
Late Minoan wood- and stone-working implements are evenly distributed across
the island, but they are heavily concentrated at palatial sites and large urban towns (Table
4.21). No site is the principal consumer of Minoan carpentry/masonry tools, as is the case
elsewhere. There are a comparable number of carpentry and masonry tools from Zakros
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