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

staggering, the Point Iria site failed to produce a single metal artifact. 688 Despite careful,
systematic excavation, only ballast stones, stone anchors, and Cypriot, Cretan and
Mycenaean ceramics were recovered. 689
Interpreting shipwreck tools is a formidable task because of the wide range of
identities they may have had: personal possessions of individuals on board, commodities
for exchange, deck tools for the ship’s upkeep, or merely scrap metal. Many whole
bronze tools (chisels, razor, punch, spatula, needle and socketed tool) were found
together in the Gelidonya cabin area, which led Bass to propose, “the strong possibility
that some of these unbroken pieces were personal possessions of the crew and were not
690
cargo; most could have been used on board a ship.”
Catling notes that the Gelidonya assemblage is closely reminiscent of Cypriot
land-hoards, yet this claim has not been scrutinized.
The broken implements from
Gelidonya, on the other hand, are envisaged as scrap metal for recycling and recasting.
The evaluation of the shipwreck tools requires a comparison between the Uluburun and
Gelidonya evidence, which is outlined below. Moreover, these consumption patterns
must be evaluated against the general hoarding practices in the LBA.
688
Agouridis 1999, 30.
689
Vichos 1999, 83, 86.
690
Bass 1967, 117.
691
Catling 1986, 68.
691
Similarities in tools from
shipwrecks and hoards from the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean suggest that
functional tool kits were on board the vessels. In spite of the incomplete Uluburun data
and the century separating the shipwrecks, the implements from both ships evince
distinctive commonalities. The breakdown of each ship’s tools by functional category is
listed below (Table 5.4).
293