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

II. The functional and social value of tools
This chapter describes the general distribution of tools by region and time period.
The significance of individual implements to an owner, particularly as objects of value,
should not be underestimated. Comprehending and calculating the worth of second
millennium bronze implements is difficult, not least because many tools are fragmentary
and/or occur in metal hoards thought to be destined for re-melting (see Chapter 5 and
hoard list in Appendix 3). Metal-producing centers from the Aegean and eastern
Mediterranean were summarized in the introduction to draw attention to the resources
required for successful bronze working and the locations where this activity occurred.
Smelting copper, casting bronze and recycling copper-alloy items are complicated
processes requiring time, energy, and technological knowhow, all of which have been
undervalued and understudied in the past. Metal implements were costly, in part because
of the extensive resources invested in their production. In this chapter section, the
functional and social value of tools are assessed: first by considering individualized
marks and signs on tools, then by exploring the ethnography of metal tool production,
consumption and use.
Signs and/or decorative elements were occasionally etched, either before or after
casting, onto the surface of metal tools. Markings inscribed on implements vary from
single signs to full inscriptions. For instance, some Cypriot tools display Cypro-Minoan
characters, while adzes from the high priest’s hoard at Ras Shamra contain full Ugaritic
inscriptions. Inscribed signs are rare on Aegean tools, though a mark on an EM II-MMII
double ax from Selakanos is an exception. 90
Some symbols on tools bear resemblance to
the enigmatic mason’s marks that frequently appear on Cretan architecture. A Cypriot
90 Branigan 1969, 2-4, figure 1.
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