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

feeling that certain tools had souls of their own was not unusual; an axe might be marked
‘Tom’ or ‘Jack’ simply because the owner felt it was a companion worthy of a pet
name.” 95
Using ethnographic evidence from modern Greece, the relationship of a
craftsperson with a set of tools is highlighted in more detail below, and this discussion
may provide insight on how prehistoric craftspersons valued tools.
Ethnographic evidence from Greece further clarifies the role of signs,
monograms, and other minor marks that adorn tools. Implements were extremely
valuable and small details enhanced their worth in the eyes of the owner. The following
quotes convey the significance of markings on implements from the 19 th and early 20 th
centuries in modern Greece:
…The most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard came from uncle-Yianni, the blacksmith from
Korthi in Andros. When he made a sickle he’d carve a little bird on it along with his
96
stamp so that the sickle would sing when the harvester used it!
The manufacturers of tools as well as the craftsmen who use them have a deep emotional
relationship with them which they often express with the designs and decorations they
engrave on the wood and iron. Or they put their stamp and signature on the tool, an image
or a monogram. Because besides being useful they want the tools they make to be
97
beautiful. They want the tools to say who made them and who used them.
The assessment of an implement’s aesthetic value is an unusual line of inquiry in most
tool analyses. Archaeologists strive to interpret the functionality of tools without entirely
considering the value of an implement to a craftsperson. This task is admittedly
subjective, and a metal’s weight often overshadows other characteristics that contribute to
its value. An implement’s worth (judging by the myriad resources necessary to produce
it) and the significance of ownership are not fully recognized in weight-driven analyses.
95
Sloane 2002, 3.
96
Quote by Giorgos Speis, researcher, see Polyzoi 2009, 85.
97
Polyzoi 2009, 83.
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