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

examination of metal caches from Bronze Age Denmark explored the ritual nature of
those hoards. 587 His example and others illustrate that, given their more unusual find
contexts, ceremonial assemblages are easier to identify in Central and Northern Europe
than in the Mediterranean, since the latter area’s hoards are typically found in domestic
contexts. By and large, ritual deposits occur in non-domestic localities (e.g. rivers) and
consist of a narrower range of objects than do utilitarian hoards. 588
Conventional explanations of metal assemblages correlate hoarding behavior with
period specific characteristics, especially in the Mediterranean. Most scholars believe that
the supply of metal has impacted hoarding activities, although there is some dispute
concerning the role it played. Hence Muhly claims that “[s]cholars cannot agree upon the
relationship between intensification of hoarding and the amount of metal in circulation.
Some argue that hoards represent exactly that, the hoarding of metal in times of scarcity,”
while others envision that hoards represent an “abundance of metal in circulation, not
589
scarcity.” Religious considerations, in addition to the already implied economic
factors, are consistently addressed in discussions of hoarding. It is thus easy to seek
singular, causative explanations for stockpiling metal while overlooking an assemblage’s
complex makeup. Catling, Spyropoulos, and Knapp et al. understand most Aegean and
eastern Mediterranean metal collections simply as objects intended to be recycled—thus
characterized as founders’ hoards. 590
Foundry caches on Cyprus coincide with the
prominence of the metallurgical industry on the island, yet it is erroneous to assume that
587
Levy 1982.
588
Bradley 1990, 10; for instance, see Schwenzer 1997.
589
Muhly 2003, 292.
590
Knapp, Muhly, and Muhly 1988, 243, table 3.
245