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

study area (from Cyprus), and its identification and function are debatable. 41
Pick-adzes
are rare implements, serviceable either in agriculture or masonry.
Metallurgical objects, like most tools for agriculture, are easily distinguished and
rarely bridge different functional categories. Metallurgical implements include those
necessary for both casting and post-firing operations. Molds (metal and stone), charcoal
shovels, tongs, furnace spatulas and a crucible scraper are implements that facilitate the
handling of hot materials in firing procedures. The only uncertain item within this group
is the crucible scraper, which may have removed slag remnants from the sides and
bottom of crucibles. This argument, however, is based only on logic and one physical
example (see Plate 5.33). Objects that reflect post-firing activities encompass
sledgehammers, files, wedges, anvils, swage blocks, cold chisels, castings, and billets.
The final two items are not tools, but make a reasonable case for metallurgical production
and post-production cold-working activities (e.g. polishing, hammering, finishing, etc.).
Objects classified as utilitarian implements are classified as such for their basic
cutting capability. Knives, razors, cleavers, scrapers, cutting or slashing implements, and
other indistinct blades are grouped together for their all-purpose character. The customary
feature of these tools is their cutting ability. Some implements would have been used to
prepare food, especially meat, but this tool type must have served a variety of other
purposes. Evely cites multiple uses for a knife: “paring and whittling; chopping; sawing;
scratching; scraping and cutting; carving; stabbing, and piercing.”
42
Some utilitarian
implements, such as “razors,” may have fulfilled personal hygiene needs. The
41 Catling (1964, 85, H1) identifies a socketed implement with a truncated-like end from the Mathiati hoard
(Cyprus) as a “plough scraper”. Catling also notes that the object is otherwise unknown in the Aegean or
Near East and is “similar to one used by ploughmen in Cyprus to scrape their shares clean when they clog
on heavy land.”
42 Evely 1993, 20.
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