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

archaeological context. For instance, tools found within a workshop may be associated
with the craft that took place there, but workshops are difficult to recognize in
archaeological remains. This is particularly true for carpentry and masonry work areas.
Hypothetically, if a set of appropriate tools were recovered near a partially worked
architectural block, those items surely would have belonged to a mason, but such explicit
evidence is usually absent. Metallurgical workshops are easier to discern, but even then,
all tools found within that context may not have been employed in metalworking—take
for instance the carpentry/masonry tools recovered in the metallurgical workshop at the
Unexplored Mansion at Knossos. The wood- and stone-working implements from this
site have been interpreted as belonging to the tool kit of a smith, but this explanation is
unsatisfactory and ignores the likelihood that they were intended for carpentry and/or
masonry tasks. 764
The purpose of such tools in a metal workshop is unclear, and a
metallurgical interpretation based solely on their appearance at the site is a bold claim.
The identification of tool kits is another method for relating implements to
craftspersons. In this study, carpentry/masonry tool kits have been recognized within
metal hoards and aboard the Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks. Tool variety and
repetitive implement choices from context to context indicate the deliberate compilation
of specific tools. These preferences probably best reflect the choices made by
craftspersons. Yet one cannot definitively say that hoarded tools, even those that appear
to be kits, belonged to a craftsperson. A cache often includes material besides tools, and
implements, though a common hoard object, are only one factor behind an assemblage’s
formation. Although a carpenter or mason may have been the owner of a hoard, it is also
764 Catling and Catling 1984, 205-207.
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