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

Chapter 3: Metal tools in the second millennium BC: assessing value, function and
distribution
I. A note about how data are presented in this chapter
It is necessary to explain how data from the tool catalogue are analyzed and
presented quantitatively in this chapter. Tool distributions are considered by functional
category, region, period, and context. These data are usually presented in two ways: as a
total tool count for each respective category and as a percentage. Of course tool
percentages change depending on what is being examined. For the purpose of
highlighting a particular region’s tool preferences over time—and to evaluate such
patterns beyond simple counts—percentages are calculated by determining an
implement’s popularity within the tool repertoire found in a specific region and time
period. This computation is made for each of the functional tool categories considered in
this chapter, and the percentages are displayed in Figures 3.5a b; Figures 3.10a, b;
Figures 3.15a, b; Figures 3.21a, b; Figure 3.25a; and Figures 3.26a, b. As an example of
how these proportions were calculated, consider the carpentry/masonry tools from Crete.
There are 71 such tools from MBA Crete (Fig. 3.26b), and this number represents 49.7%
of the 143 total implements on the island during that period (Figure 3.1b). For the LBA,
there are 379 carpentry/masonry tools and this number equates to 58% of the 653 total
LBA Cretan implements. Thus, it is clear that although there is a remarkable quantitative
increase in carpentry/masonry tools from the MBA to the LBA, the region’s tendency to
produce and use these implements changes only slightly (from 49.7% to 58%). By
examining the data in this manner, it is possible to compare a region’s tool preferences
over time and space.
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