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

craftspersons, and maybe even the kinds of tools that were necessary to construct the
house of the high priest. This hoard reveals that tool kits may be placed in unlikely
contexts, such as dedicatory, non-utilitarian assemblages.
The Şarköy hoard from northwestern Turkey (İğdebağları village, north of the Sea
of Marmara) dates to the 12 th –11 th century BC and is principally composed of sickles (45
examples). 682
682 Harmankaya 1995.
A small collection of wood- and stone-working tools from the Şarköy
cache may reflect a simple carpentry/masonry tool kit: three double axes, two
trunnion/lugged axes and one wedge-like device. Whether or not these objects were a
craftsperson’s tool grouping, the selection of different implements seems meaningful.
***
Given the preceding summary, the preference for implements—particularly those
needed by carpenters and masons—in hoards is indisputable. The traditional view that
tools in hoards are scrap metal is doubted here because of recurring patterns in
stockpiling. Standardized craftsperson kits are frequently distinguishable in Aegean
assemblages. The diversity of implement types and the existence of subtypes within
hoards indicate deliberate organization. Assemblages with a single example of several
different tool types (e.g. the Orchomenos hoard and Enkomi Trésor de Bronzes) are
instantly recognizable as implement sets. Evidently, purposefully-arranged tool groupings
were one, but not the only, structural agent in compiling a stock of metal. This conclusion
is at variance with the normal interpretation of hoards belonging either to a founder or a
merchant.
291