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

extraordinary number of metal tools on the island—an unmistakable phenomenon when
the tool counts from each region are compared.
Metalworking is relatively common during the MBA in Anatolia, both along the
Aegean coast and on the central plateau. Kültepe is a major metallurgical center, with
evidence of nineteen different MBA workshops at the site. 15
Given the prominence of
metalworking in Anatolia and on Cyprus, it was anticipated that these regions would
yield the greatest number of tools from the MBA. A notable amount of MBA tools have
turned up in Crete, trailing only Cyprus and Anatolia in total output. The popularity of
implements in Minoan contexts corresponds to traces of MBA metalworking on the
island. Minoan smiths must have been influenced by indigenous metallurgical traditions
stemming from the third millennium, but were probably open to inspiration from
Anatolia and/or Cyprus, places from which Crete acquired metal. The rest of the Aegean
does not exhibit strong indications of metallurgy, though some Middle Helladic (MH)
sites have yielded remains of metalworking (e.g. Sesklo, Lerna, Malthi and Nichoria).
Metallurgy is more common in the LBA, which coincides with the period’s
16
increased demand for and consumption of tools. The Cypriot metallurgical industry
reaches its peak during the LBA, and remnants of metalworking have turned up at nearly
every Late Cypriot (LC) site. Despite the ubiquity of metallurgy on the island, the
number of oxhide ingots from Cyprus is surprisingly low when compared to their
distribution throughout the rest of the Aegean and central Mediterranean. 17
The
importance of metal production in Anatolia, so apparent in the MBA, maintained its
15
Müller-Karpe 1994, 49-66.
16
For a summary of Late Cypriot sites and the metallurgical evidence found at each, see Knapp 2008, 211-
239.
17
Kassianidou 2009.
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