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

ecycled items. Final products like tools are not ideal candidates for lead isotope analysis,
since the ratios are distorted when the sample contains metals from multiple sources or
recycled materials. Research questions of previous studies have focused on the
implications of a single, middle metallurgical stage: the distribution and exchange of raw
products. In fact, Muhly notes that Aegean archaeometallurgy has only recently shifted
towards addressing basic metallurgical questions such as the initial procedures of ore
prospection, crushing, smelting, and refining. 32
There are three major stages in the metallurgical process. The first and second
phases involve several tasks, from mining prospection to casting and producing objects in
the metallurgical workshop. The final stage related to metallurgy is understudied; it
encapsulates the distributional patterns of the finished products (Fig. 2.1), as well as
questions pertaining to the fate of the items. What happens to the manufactured objects
after leaving the metallurgical workshop? How are they utilized and where are they
dispersed? How do metal objects become deposited in the archaeological record? The
general systems that dictate this final phase, defined as the consumption of objects and
their use lives, require explanation. Previous investigations have overlooked the
intricacies of this metallurgical stage, yet it is a prime candidate for gauging cross-
regional contact and interaction, primarily due to the wide distribution of metal artifacts.
By identifying regional choices in tool consumption, similar object preferences may be
discerned within different areas. Such patterns shed light on potential interaction and
require an explanation.
Although it has been pointed out that finished metal products have been
disregarded in many discussions of cultural interactions, casted objects have hardly been
32 Muhly 2008a, 41.
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