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

unrelated objects; and 3) the traditional interpretations about hoarding practices that rely
on historical or chronological arguments.
Tools from EBA hoards are whole and lack substantial damage, but those from
MBA and LBA hoards are often fragmentary and considered scrap. If a hoard is thought
to be destined for a foundry, the potential functionality of its tools—complete or
fragmentary—is disregarded. Consequently, patterns of tool variability and structured
hoarding practices are overlooked. Hoarded tools from the second millennium are not
always broken, and the fragmentary ones may have been usable. 614
Well-preserved
utensils are intermixed with so-called scrap pieces in many hoards.
Implements are undeniably prominent in the MBA and LBA assemblages, yet
they coexist with weapons, scrap metal, fragmentary copper ingots, and miscellaneous
metal objects. Therefore tool groupings within larger metal assemblages have previously
been considered random accumulations instead of implement sets. The complexity of
these compositions emphasizes the multi-functional nature for most hoards, and the
reluctance to consider several explanations in hoarding formations has prevented tool kits
from being identified.
The historical connotation for many assemblages is a third reason for the
oversight of hoarded tool kits. Traditional analyses have cited socio-economic concerns
as the cause for hoard depositions, with the understanding that assemblages were meant
to be safeguarded and eventually retrieved. This interpretation, bolstered by broken and
hodgepodge collections of objects, purports a single socio-economic reason for the
genesis of an entire assemblage, leaving no room for evaluation of tool types. As argued
earlier with respect to the study of hoards in Europe, periods of transition and social
614 For a discussion about the value and intentionality of broken objects, see Chapman 2000.
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