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

stone-working tools included sixteen flat axes, two shaft-hole axes, one saw, one
socketed chisel, five narrow chisels, and one drill. Moreover, thirty-one knives and eight
awls make up the utilitarian implements. The collection of these tool types parallels the
selection in other kits, though the quantity of the Pera implements is significantly greater
than other hoards.
The Makarska hoard, tentatively dated to the MC II–III period, is as problematic
as the Pera bronzes. The objects are either from Makarska, Croatia or from the modern
Cypriot village, Makrasyka, in the Mesaoria valley. Although the hoard is traditionally
attributed to Croatia, Catling asserted that Makarska was a misspelling of the Cypriot
Makrasyka. 673
The objects indeed resemble Cypriot prototypes, lending credence to
Catling’s hypothesis, even though the general lack of contextual details regarding the
assemblage is troublesome. Despite the multiple problems presented by this metal
collection, the owner’s preference for tools is evident. Two single/flat axes, two shaft-
hole axes (one bent and deformed), two socketed chisels (of different lengths) and one
socketed hammer comprise seven of the nine hoard objects. The diversified tool types
and repetition in the assemblage qualifies it as a tool kit.
The Mathiati hoard produced 28 ingot fragments and other bits of scrap metal,
thus conveying the impression of a foundry assemblage. Yet the published photograph in
Catling’s 1964 monograph depicts a probable wood- and stone-working kit of eleven
implements, the whereabouts of which are currently unknown (Plate 5.30).
674
This set
consisted of two double axes, three double adzes, one ax-adze, one hammer-adze, three
673 Vagnetti 1971, 214-216; Åström 1977-1978, 40.
674 Catling 1964, pate 52. These objects could not be located in the Nicosia Museum during my visits in
April and October 2008. Furthermore, there was no record within the museum of the present location of
these implements.
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