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

that this task in and of itself was very large, and certainly a necessary first step. Despite
the immense value of scientific sampling and the questions it may address, this project’s
queries are more concerned with the socio-economic processes and craft preferences that
governed the distribution, movement, and deposition of objects in the archaeological
record. Its research design is simple and deliberately different from typologically- or
scientifically-focused metallurgical studies.
The basic, yet laborious, approach of inspecting and handling objects in person
was used to compile the study’s tool database and to make detailed observations of the
implements. Several fellowships, including the Fanny Bullock Workman Traveling
Fellowship and the Bryne-Rubel Fellowship, both from Bryn Mawr College; the Danielle
Parks Memorial Fellowship from the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute
(CAARI); and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) Multi-
Country Research Fellowship, provided me with the opportunity to conduct research on
tools in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, England and France. Four separate trips, totaling 27
weeks, were made to museums and sites in the aforementioned countries between March
2008 and September 2009. Originally, the investigation of physical tools was meant to be
supplemented by an extensive examination of the remnant tool marks on architectural
blocks. It was hoped that a dual study on tool cuttings and the actual implements would
elucidate tool function as well as any crafting characteristics indicative of technological
transfer between different cultures and their architectural traditions. This desire led to a
period of research spent inspecting tool marks on prehistoric public and elite buildings.
Numerous archaeological sites with distinguishable cut blocks (displaying saw and chisel
marks, drill holes, etc.) were visited, including 25 in Greece, 11 in Cyprus and 10 in
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