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

produced a monograph specifically on Cretan double axes. 714 Deshayes’ extensive
coverage of prehistoric metal tools—from the earliest examples in the fourth millennium
until the end of the Bronze Age and covering a vast geographical space between the
Indus Valley and the Danube River—was thus a truly herculean undertaking. 715
Following Deshayes’ monograph, tool studies rarely received their own investigation and
were evaluated with other, often regionally focused, metal work. In Catling’s
fundamental study on Cypriot bronzes, tools constitute just a portion of the material
examined and are primarily compared to Aegean examples. 716 Balthazar’s examination of
Early and Middle Cypriot metal work updates Catling’s book to some extent, but only for
the early periods of the Bronze Age. 717 Balthazar’s extremely useful monograph focuses
principally on early indigenous Cypriot developments; less attention is given to
contextualizing the implements within the broader eastern Mediterranean and Aegean.
The tools from the Late Cypriot period are thus examined collectively here for the first
time since Catling’s monograph. His conclusion regarding the impact of Mycenaean tool
types on Cyprus after 1200 BC, supposedly in conjunction with new Aegean settlers on
the island, is no longer tenable. 718
There are very few similarities between Mycenaean
and Cypriot tools, and the Aegean-like tools on the island bear a resemblance to Cretan
types rather than mainland ones. This observation is significant for understanding how
Cyprus interacted with the Aegean world in the 13 th and 12 th centuries, especially in
terms of craft work.
714
Sandars 1955; 1961; 1963; Buchholz 1959.
715
Deshayes 1960. Also see reviews of Deshayes’ work by: Maxwell-Hyslop 1963; Mellink 1963;
Garašanin 1964.
716
Catling 1964.
717
Balthazar 1990.
718
Catling 1964, 76-77; 108-109.
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