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

e-casting metal, which required hot-working tools. The assertion that damaged materials
were easily melted and recast does not fully appreciate the time, fuel, energy, resources,
and technological knowhow required in metallurgical activities; it additionally
undervalues the possibility of cold metallurgical work.
The fact that hoards contain both complete and fragmentary objects, especially
tools, has been ignored. Many incomplete tools preserved at least one cutting edge,
meaning that fragmented pieces retained a limited functional capability. Fragmentary
utensils need not be scrap metal, especially if broken pieces could take on secondary
functions. A cursory examination of foundry hoard tools, particularly those from
Orchomenos, highlights two points: the practice of tool modification and the coexistence
of complete and partial implements.
Evidence of tool alteration in the Orchomenos hoard 633
The intentional alteration of some hoarded tools suggests that they were
deliberately stockpiled because of their functional capabilities. The modification of
implements is detectable in several LBA hoards, yet it is remarkably perceptible in the
large Orchomenos metal assemblage (106 objects)—now on display in the renovated
634
Chaironeia Museum (MX).
This cache exemplifies an archetypal founder’s hoard with
tools, weapons, vessel/stand fragments, scrap, slag, and miscellaneous bronze pieces.
Overwhelmingly made up of broken implements, the Orchomenos cache also features a
cluster of intact tools.
633 The Orchomenos hoard was never published in detail and only a brief description of its context and
composition were published in Spyropoulos 1970. The entire hoard is now prominently displayed in the
recently renovated Chaironeia Museum. I am thankful to Dr. Vasilis Aravantinos who granted me
permission to examine these objects and to Yannis Fappas for facilitating my study at the museum.
634 Every instance of tool modification, however, is not reported here.
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