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

structured tool groupings must acknowledge overlaps in tool categories and the potential
complexities within a kit. In this project, knives are listed as utilitarian items and awls are
identified as objects intended for small craft. Both utensils, however, appear repeatedly
with wood- or stone-working implements, and, in some instances, were incorporated into
either a carpentry or a masonry tool set.
In determining whether a group of tools constitutes a set, one should explore the
differences among the kinds of implements and subtypes, with particular attention paid to
tool size. Groups of tools with greater diversity (within a functional category) are
excellent candidates for being a kit. Often, hoards contain both whole and fragmentary
tools. Usually broken tools, having been considered functionally worthless, are not taken
into account when determining if there is a unifying purpose to a metal assemblage. Such
disqualifications make it difficult to say with conviction that hoards containing
fragmentary pieces constitute tool kits. Herein is the problem with previous hoard
interpretations: fragmentary implements are deemed incapable of effective use. Chapman
has shown, in a review of the prehistoric evidence from Southeastern Europe, that
fragmented objects may be intentionally included in structured depositions. 538 He reviews
numerous categories of objects that provide evidence of intentional fragmentation (for the
purpose of enchained relationships) including but not limited to ceramics, figurines,
flaked stones, and spondylus shells. 539 Chapman also lists copper tools as a category of
fragmented objects that may have been deliberately made so, though the object class is
not as frequent as other fragmentary items. 540
Citing the fact that half-preserved tools are
often found without their counterparts, Chapman suggests that there were “special kinds
538 Chapman 2000, 49-54.
539 Chapman 2000, 49, 65-104.
540 Chapman 2000, 101-103.
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