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

edifices were constructed in the 13 th and 12 th centuries. The LC wood- and stone-working
implements are diverse; chisels, single/flat axes and drills comprise the characteristic
types (Fig. 4.29). Of the new tool forms introduced in the LC period, shafted, double-
sided implements represent the bulk, which were either imported from Crete or inspired
from prototypes found there.
Numerous LBA Anatolian sites have produced remnants of metallurgical activity,
concentrated in central Anatolia (Boğazköy, Ortaköy-Şapinuwa, Alaca Höyük, Gavur-
Kalesi, and Kuşaklı-Sarissa) and in Cilicia/Amuq (Tarsus, Kinet-Höyük, and Açana). 761
The practice of casting metal is also documented in the Troad (Troy) while melting,
casting and possibly smelting occurred in the Black Sea region (Kınık-Kastamonu)
judging by the recovery of slag, a crucible, and potential furnaces. 762
Given the dense
concentration of metallurgical work areas at Boğazköy, the Hittite capital must have been
the chief producer of metal in central Anatolia. The plentiful remains of Anatolian
metalworking correspond to a vast selection of metal tools—nearly three times as many
as from the MBA (Fig. 3.1a, b).
Anatolian agricultural tools (56 examples) are more common than those on Crete
or the mainland, yet their frequency fails to match the Cypriot and Syro-Palestinian
predilection for such equipment. Metalworking tools are not as prominent in Anatolia
during the LBA as in the earlier period, but are found just as often as on Crete and
Cyprus. Anatolian utilitarian implements are not ubiquitous like Aegean or Cypriot
examples, yet their infrequency is comparable to Syria-Palestine. Carpentry/masonry
761 Müller-Karpe 1994, 72-98.
762 For Kınık-Kastamonu , see: Gates 1997: 258; Greaves and Helwing 2001:498-499.
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