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

The Cycladic and Greek mainland cases of traveling Minoan craftspersons
suggest a different socio-economic situation in place than that for the Hittite-Mycenaean
connection. While a state-level society existed on Neopalatial Crete, it appears as a peer-
polity system and a comparable level of social organization is not documented in the
Cyclades or the mainland at that time. Again, the exact mechanisms of interaction in the
early Mycenaean period between Crete and the islands/mainland are unclear, but this
situation is very different from the apparent palace to palace relations of the Hittites and
Mycenaeans. The aforementioned craft similarities between central Anatolia and the
Greek mainland are only detectable at palatial sites. The Minoan craftspersons who
worked outside Crete do not appear to have been so restricted. Even if Minoan artisans
were employed by mainland elites, this structure and organization is very different from
the Hittite and Mycenaean one. Clearly, the Crete‒Cycladic/mainland connection was not
based on an equivalent citadel to citadel relationship.
The apparent difference in craft travel, as noted above, is a reflection of a
centralized and controlling agency. In light of these observations, it is interesting to
reconsider the distribution of LBA carpentry/masonry tools by site, as most regions have
one primary consumer. Of the Cypriot carpentry/masonry tools (182 examples), 57.6%
(94 cases) come from Enkomi. Likewise, Mycenae (25.2% or 77 out of 306), Hattusha
(60.3% or 199 out of 330) and Ugarit (67.8% or 82 out of 121) are the chief users of LBA
wood- and stone-working tools in their respective regions. As previously noted, the
distribution of these tools is more evenly distributed on Crete, reflecting the peer-polity
nature of the Neopalatial period. Zakros has greatest yield of LM carpentry/masonry
tools, but this number represents only 14.5% of the region’s assemblage. The method of
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