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

metallurgical and agricultural tools. The assortment of carpentry/masonry tools in
Cypriot caches suggests that kits were also present. The importance of tool sets, their
functional worth, and their relation to craftspersons has not been fully recognized. Tool
kits unequivocally are one defining trait of LBA hoards, and a cursory overview of
caches from Crete, the Greek mainland, and eastern Mediterranean substantiates this
observation.
Tool kits in Cretan hoards (See Fig. 5.1 and Appendix 3): Two Protopalatial
hoards from Quartier Mu (Mallia) constitute credible carpenter/mason tool kits. The first,
from Building A (room I9), consisted of an ax-adze, a saw, a drill, and a knife. The
second, from Building B (room IV4), contained a double ax, a saw, a socketed adze, and
a mortise chisel. Poursat recognized both hoards as carpenter tool kits. 653
The variety of
utensils in these small groupings is the primary indication that they constitute a repertoire
of tools used by a craftsperson.
Five metal assemblages from Neopalatial Crete comprise plausible tool kits: two
from Knossos and three from Mochlos. The Knossos South House hoard contained ten
objects, all tools with several cases of repetition: three saws, two double axes, two knives,
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an ax-hammer, and what appear to be two tubular drills. The Knossos Northwest hoard
included five double adzes, three double axes, and a long chisel. 655
Collectively the tools
from this hoard form a coherent set, although the high quantity of double adzes is unusual
and not attested elsewhere.
653
Poursat 1985.
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Evans 1928, 629-630. I recognize two hollow metal cylinders as tubular drills.
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Evans 1928, 627-629.
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