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

Utilitarian devices are extremely popular in the Aegean, although they appear with some
regularity throughout each region. Implements designed to cut wood are prohibitively
difficult to tell apart from those meant for stone. Consequently, carpentry and masonry
tools are grouped together as one category, and this functional classification (consisting
of axes, adzes, chisels, saws, drills, etc.) is the most ubiquitous type of tool.
Consequently, Chapters 4 and 5 offer a focused case study on the carpentry and masonry
implements to appraise their importance in each region, the implied tool preferences of
these industries, and any signs of craft-related connections between different areas.
The types of carpentry and masonry tools and their occurrence in each region
under study are examined in Chapter 4 to bring to light the craft choices and tool
selections that were made. The dispersal of these implements emphasizes local
consumption as well as identifying specific tools as characteristic of a certain region. For
instance, saws are prominent on Crete while the double ax is indisputably an Aegean
implement. Shaft-hole axes, trunnion/lugged axes and socketed chisels, on the other
hand, typify Anatolian and eastern Mediterranean tools. Similarities between Mycenaean
and Minoan tool selections are not as strong as expected, yet there seems to be a
Mycenaean and Anatolian link, best represented in stonework from tool markings made
by saws and drills. Remnants of tubular drilling, as circular mortises, appear in
architectural foundations throughout Hittite and Mycenaean citadels; the tubular drill was
also utilized to manufacture sculpture in central Anatolia and the Greek mainland.
Cypriot tools blend indigenous types with specific forms found in Anatolia, Syria-
Palestine and the Aegean. The LC utensils have very little in common with the
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