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

Chapter 1: Introduction: metal tools, metallurgy, and craftsmanship in the Aegean,
eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia
I. The relationship between metal tools and craft industries in the Bronze Age
By the Late Bronze Age (LBA), 1600‒1050 BC, tools became one of the
predominant categories of metal objects from the Mediterranean world. 1
The ubiquity of
metal tools at this time was the result of the evolution of craft industries that utilized
them, as well as developments in metallurgy. The prevalence of metal implements in the
LBA emerged from trends established during the early second millennium BC. Yet close
to three times as many tools have come to light at LBA sites in comparison to the
aggregate amount from the Middle Bronze Age (MBA), 2000–1600 BC. Metal utensils
are repeatedly found in early second millennium contexts, and their occurrence is
predicated on a region’s technological knowledge as well as its ability to acquire metal
resources. For instance, the greatest concentration of MBA metal tools is from Cyprus, an
island rich in copper. On the other hand, implements from the early second millennium
are infrequent on the Greek mainland and islands—areas that lack an abundance of
natural copper besides relatively minor ore sources at Lavrion, Kythnos and Seriphos.
With limited quantities of metal available on the mainland and Cyclades, these areas—
during the MBA—trailed other regions in the quality of craft products and technology.
The inception of metal tool production occurs as early as the fourth millennium
BC in the Near East, while a handful of metal tools are dated to the Final Neolithic period
1 For an overview about the consumption of metal objects on Crete and the Greek mainland during the
LBA, see: Hakulin 2008, 199-201, Fig. 1b; Kayafa 2008, 212-218, Diagrams 6-7.
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