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

Branigan’s impressive investigation of EBA and MBA metalwork incorporates
materials from the entire Aegean world, including the Troad. 719 Other publications on the
Aegean tool series are more regionally based. Cretan metal tools are compiled in two
major works by Shaw and Evely on Minoan crafts. 720 These studies (especially Evely’s)
comprehensively describe the Minoan tool series, yet rarely consider cross-regional
comparisons with the Minoan data. In comparison, tools from the Greek mainland have
received less attention. Tripathi examined the implements, alongside other metalwork
like weapons, from the MH and early Mycenaean contexts. 721 Although Tripathi’s study
repeatedly analyzed the mainland’s metal industry in relation to Crete, it did not compare
the mainland with areas further to the east. Although they were included in Deshayes’
monograph, Mycenaean metal tools have not received their own specialized study up to
this point. Previously, the best overview of these implements may have been Iakovidis’
general account of the Mycenaean metal industry or Spyropoulos’ presentation of LH
hoards, most of which contained implements. 722 A quantitative overview of the
mainland’s tools—but not an investigation of the implements themselves—is given by
Kayafa, who compares the tool counts to other metal categories. 723 Harding and Downey
each published a short summary article on Mycenaean tools, but generally this collection
of data is severely understudied and has not received a systematic investigation. 724
Therefore, the current study has compiled the most thorough assembly of Mycenaean
metal tools to date. Two Greek dissertations on various aspects of Mycenaean metal tools
719
Branigan 1974.
720
Shaw 1973a; 2009; Evely 1999; 2000. Also see Hakulin 2004.
721
Tripathi 1988.
722
Iakovidis 1982; Spyropoulos 1972.
723
Kayafa 2008.
724
Harding 1975; Downey 2001.
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