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

functional worth. The issue of broken tools is often taken up in hoard discussions and
their interpretations but otherwise the subject is not regularly broached. 732
It has been
argued here that fragmentary tools could retain functional purposes, and evidence exists
that tools were intentionally modified and/or broken from time to time. My analysis of
hoarded tools provides a fresh look at these materials with the result that our
understanding of hoards must also be re-evaluated—a point made throughout Chapter 5.
Hoards often include a diverse collection of tools that may constitute a kit. As such,
deliberate implement groupings seem to be an important, though not the only, component
governing the formation of a hoard. Metal objects from shipwrecks compare favorably to
the collections within hoards, for tool kits are also detectable on these vessels.
II. Summary of the regional tool distributions and metallurgical centers
Middle Bronze Age (2000 – 1600 BC)
Copper-alloy tools are distributed throughout the entire study region during the
MBA, and occur in greater concentrations in the eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia than
in the Aegean. The Greek mainland and islands are particularly lacking in the number of
wood- and stone-working implements. These patterns are plainly seen in the distribution
of all tools (Fig. 3.1a, b) as well as the pattern of carpentry/masonry implements (Fig.
4.28). As a general rule of thumb, metal agricultural equipment from this period is
extremely unusual, suggesting that smiths were selective in how they utilized metal
resources for the production of tools.
Given the rich copper sources on Cyprus, it is unsurprising that metal implements
are attested on the island throughout the second millennium BC. The remarkable number
732 For broken tools in hoards, see Spyropoulos 1972; Knapp, Muhly and Muhly 1988; Soles 2008.
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