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

ignored in previous scholarship. Muhly notes that the intensive analytical focus on
sourcing revealed that, “the [20 th century scholarly] emphasis was upon the finished
product, the artefacts themselves.” 33 Traditional approaches to metallurgical analysis
offer detailed typological studies, but fail to probe the social implications of object
selection, utilization, and disuse. 34 Typological analysis undervalues the mechanisms and
schemes that govern the final metallurgical stage. There are more investigations on
Aegean weaponry than tools, even though both types of objects are conjointly described
in excavation reports and appear in the same museum cases. 35
When tools are the subject
of specialized studies, they are often considered along with weapons. Yet, the abundance
of prehistoric metal tools mandates their own study, exclusive from weapons.
Studies on Bronze Age metal implements vary from regionally-focused to
comprehensive. Deshayes’ publication is the most ambitious, covering an area from the
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Indus Valley to the Danube River. Cypriot (Catling; Balthazar), Minoan (Branigan;
Shaw; Evely; Hakulin), Early Mycenaean (Tripathi), Mycenaean (Harding; Iakovidis;
Downey), general eastern Mediterranean (Bass), and Anatolian (Erkanal; Müller-Karpe)
studies on metal implements provide a fundamental basis for comprehending and
assessing the cross-regional nature of second millennium tool industries. 37
Despite this
33
Muhly 2008, 40.
34
See the comprehensive and detailed Prähistorische Bronzefunde series for typological studies in
metallurgical artifacts. For an example of metal tools in this series, see: Erkanal 1977.
35
This imbalance in scholarship may result from the perception that quantities of weapons outnumber tools.
For example, in his discussion of EBA metals, Renfrew (1972, 325) notes: “Finds of tools are less
commonly made than of weapons, since, during the early bronze age, metal tools were not often buried
with the dead.” A brief survey of literature on weapons includes: Daggers (Dietz 1971; Dakaris 1967),
spearheads and arrowheads (Avila 1983) lances and spears (Höckmann 1980a; 1980b; 1987), spearheads
(Reinholdt 1993), swords (Catling 1956; Sandars 1961; 1963; Foltiny 1964; Weinstein 1981; Kilian-
Dirlmeier 1990; 1993; Eder 1999), greaves (Mountjoy 1984; Fortenberry 1991) and general weapon and
warfare studies (Yalouris 1960; Fortenberry 1990; Càssola Guida and Galli Fonseca 1992; Thomas 2005).
36
Deshayes 1960.
37
Cyprus: Catling 1964; Balthazar 1990; Minoan: Branigan 1968, 1974; Shaw 1973a, Shaw 2009; Evely
1993; Evely 2000; Hakulin 2004; Hakulin 2008; Early Mycenaean: Tripathi 1988; Mycenaean: Harding
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