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

upon the cutting end profile, although “adzes tend to be less robust than axes.” 56 Axes are
swung with chopping motions while adzes enable paring. An ax’s cutting edge is formed
by two beveled sides, while an adze’s tip is only beveled on one side, and flat on the
other. Evely clarifies the functional difference between axes and adzes: “Essentially they
are related tools: the adze though, with its cutting edge turned through a right angle in
relation to that of the axe, is presented to the object being worked in a manner so that it
chips and pares rather than chops.” 57
This minor variation defies recognition when a
cutting edge is heavily corroded or badly preserved.
The desire to classify stems from efforts to comprehend vast amounts of data and
is all the more problematic by the formation of multiple typologies. Balthazar notes that
three different typological systems exist for Early and Middle Cypriot metals, each
formed by Åström, Catling and Stewart, respectively. The unavoidable problem of
triplicate typologies is recognized: “each of the typologies remains in common use today;
some scholars choose to follow one system, while others attempt to incorporate all
58
three.” Merrillees notes the futility in devising new typologies, given what already
exists: “any nomenclature that departs radically from the systems already enshrined in the
archaeological literature will not in any case be followed.” 59
A revised typological
scheme is unwarranted, but some standardization is necessary to examine objects cross-
culturally because items are published under different names. This study offers a
simplified method of comparison that avoids the function-laden nomenclature.
56 Evely 1993, 75.
57 Evely 1993, 62.
58 Balthazar 1990, 306-307.
59 Merrillees 1985, 13.
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