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

implements comprise 45% of the region’s tool repertoire, meaning that this category
remained the preferred one in Anatolia.
Diversity characterizes the Anatolian wood- and stone-working tools, and chisel
and chisel-like implements represent the typical type (Fig. 4.29). Anatolian chisels
normally have narrow cutting edges, and a unique subtype from central Anatolia is bit-
sized. Such tiny chisel forms (with cutting edges less than 0.5 cm wide) vary slightly in
size, possibly reflecting interchangeable chisel bits. Other prominent carpentry/masonry
tools from LBA Anatolia include trunnion/lugged axes, shaft-hole axes, and socketed
chisels. Saws are not preserved from Anatolia—other than an impressive Minoan-like
example from Hattusha—despite evidence of saw cuttings in Hittite masonry. Solid drills
have turned up in the archaeological record, but tubular drill bits are absent. Nevertheless,
the tubular drill was a key implement of Hittite masons and artisans, as indicated by 1)
drill cores and 2) the hundreds of drill holes visible on architectural foundations and on a
select number of sculpted animals.
LBA metallurgical installations from the Levant are not as abundant as those from
Anatolia, Cyprus or Crete, yet examples are known at Ras Ibn Hani, Ugarit, and Kamid
el-Loz (Lebanon). 763
As in other regions, the LBA Syro-Palestinian tools more than
doubles the MBA count, but the Levant’s total assemblage is meager in relation to other
regions. This is a result of the incomplete nature of the Syro-Palestinian data in the
763 Ugarit: Schaeffer 1949, 204-205, figure 84 (14); Bounni, Lagarce, and Lagarce 1998, 39-47 figure 4;
Chanut and Dardaillon 2000, 222. Kamid el-Loz: Frisch, Mansfeld, and Thiele 1985, 73-78, 156. The best
known metallurgical site in Israel is Timna in the southern Negev desert. This copper production site was
originally dated to the LBA and associated with Egyptian New Kingdom metallurgical practices. Recent
research now dates Timna to the 11 th through 9 th century BC. Two papers at the 2010 ASOR Annual
Meeting presented evidence for re-dating this important metalworking site. See, Ben-Yosef et al. 2010 and
Avner 2010.
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