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

(Trésor de bronzes, Stylianou, and Point 1458). Such iteration is improbable through the
haphazard stockpiling of scrap. The handles were, in all likelihood, purposefully
collected to serve as prototypes for future fabrication of molds or for making repairs to
vessels. Two examples of ceramic molds for bronze handles were found in the Artisan
Quarter (Building A) at Mochlos—though not within the hoard from that area. 613
The
creation of such molds must have been aided by already existing samples of the finished
product; this supposition explains why single metal handles are repeatedly saved in
assemblages.
Miniature bronze wheels were often attached either to wagon/chariot models
(such as the Brunnen 212 and Athienou examples) or to elaborate (typically Cypriot)
bronze stands. Model wheels, without any accompanying equipment, are therefore
oddities within the Mycenae Schliemann, Thebes (non-Arsenal), Enkomi Foundry,
Enkomi Stylianou, and Sinda hoards. The frequent retention of a wheel or two without
affiliated or related items seems to challenge the theory of scrap accumulation. Maybe the
metal wheels fit into the same category as the tripod legs and handles—that is, as objects
saved to make molds for reproducing attachments.
When hoards with tools are small and homogenous, like the EBA Aegean hoards,
a tool kit’s identity is unmistakable. The implements in these early caches show the
functional variability of coherent tool sets. Three factors explain why scholars have
overlooked the possibility of tool kits in second millennium BC hoards: 1) the
fragmentary nature of many hoard implements; 2) the collection of diverse, seemingly
613
Soles 2003, 19-22, fig. 12, plate 9c; Andreadaki-Vlazaki, Rethemiotakis and Dimopoulou-Rethemiotaki
2008, 94.
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