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

extremely limited in comparison to other regions (Fig. 4.28). Tool production on the MH
mainland lagged behind Crete and the eastern regions, probably because copper was not
widely circulated on the mainland.
Despite the presumed backwardness of MH metallurgy, some
archaeometallurgical evidence on the mainland is dated to the MBA. 748 MH foundries are
attested at Lerna, Malthi, and Nichoria while remains at Sesklo also suggest production
activity. 749 This evidence has led Tripathi to conclude that “Middle Helladic
metallurgical skill was not so undistinguished or in such a rudimentary state as is often
supposed.” 750 Tripathi interprets the MH metallurgical industry as preserving an EH
tradition with a hint of Anatolian inspiration, thus envisioning smiths as both sedentary
and itinerant. 751 The evidence for MH production centers led Iakovidis to assert that there
was “an indigenous and widespread [early second millennium] metal industry, operating
from Thessaly to the Peloponnese and practiced by local smiths working on their own
and for their small communities.” 752 Kayafa is less impressed with the industry and
recognizes a “recession” in metallurgical activity from EH III to MH II, due to a change
in the supply and demand of metal. 753
Metallurgy is even rarer on the islands during the Middle Cycladic period than on
the mainland. The absence of metalworking sites for smelting, melting and/or casting is
reinforced by an insignificant yield of tools. There are only four metal implements (two
double axes and two knives) in the catalogue from this phase and region. Island
748
Kayafa 2008, 211.
749
Lerna: Caskey 1955, 42, plate 14f; Caskey 1957, 159; Banks 1984 (1967), 223, 227. Malthi: Valmin
1938, 8, 102, 157, 412-413, appendix 1. Nichoria: McDonald 1975, 109-110; Cooke and Nielsen 1978,
182-183, 211; Howell 1992, 26-27. Sesklo: Tsountas 1908, 333, 335, 349; Tripathi 1988, 115.
750
Tripathi 1988, 115.
751
Tripathi 1988, 119-120; Iakovidis 1982, 213.
752
Iakovidis 1982, 213.
753
Kayafa 2008, 214.
318