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

often selected according to certain principles and were not arbitrarily amassed. Random
accumulation would result in a motley assemblage during a metal shortage or when
objects were hastily deposited preceding imminent danger. Although hoards could be
created haphazardly on occasion, the recurrence of specific tool types in metal
assemblages may signify a structural principle. This formative property need not define a
hoard’s entire composition, but it could explain why some objects were repeatedly
selected for inclusion. One organizational element of several Mediterranean hoards was
that of a tool kit, the evidence for which is presented under Section 4e of this chapter.
The exact depositional date of the LBA Mediterranean caches is problematic
since a hoard’s contextual information from this era is often scanty. Despite this issue,
Catling and Spyropoulos have dated nearly all Cypriot and Greek hoards to around 1200
BC. 600 The inadequate details regarding the context of numerous caches necessitates
reliance upon typological comparisons (using individual objects), and perpetuates the
assumption that hoarding practices were caused solely by period-specific, socio-
economic turmoil. Even when hoards are properly excavated, they are not always
published in detail. Knapp et al. complained about the dating for some Enkomi hoards
(12 th century, LC IIIA), arguing that there was too “little stratigraphic or ceramic
evidence” by which to arrive at that date. 601
The chronological assignment of many
assemblages is circumstantial and inadequate and the interpretation of LBA
Mediterranean hoards has unfortunately been influenced greatly by socio-economic and
cultural factors. The seemingly sudden proliferation of hoarding at the end of the Bronze
Age is striking, for it appears to coincide with historical and political unrest. The collapse
600 Catling 1964, 278-298; Spyropoulos 1972.
601 Knapp, Muhly, and Muhly 1988, 246.
248