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

durability. Stone cutting objects became dull quickly and had to be retouched and
sharpened more often. 121 Obsidian blades were extremely sharp and may have served
everyday cutting needs (for instance, processing fish), 122 but it is also possible that they
were used for crafting. Obsidian, in addition to other qualities, is effective in cutting
wood. 123
Obsidian blades also offered alternatives to metal knives and sickles.
The outdated and simplistic notion that metal implements completely replaced
124
lithic types is no longer tenable. Evely recognized as much by pointing out the diverse
repertoire of stone tools in the Bronze Age: “the range, variety and degree of
specialization of stone tools appear to increase even as the development of metal tools
was gaining momentum.” 125
It is well recognized that stone tools were contemporary
with metal versions at major LBA urban centers (e.g. Tiryns, the Palace of Nestor,
Enkomi, and Hattusha) but it is less certain how those lithics complemented or
augmented bronze tools in craft work. Perhaps stone versions served as backups for the
metal forms. It is possible that an artisan’s tool kit consisted of both metal and stone
implements, each intended for a specific purpose. Evely explains the simultaneous
preference for stone and metal tools in the Bronze Age, but notes that certain stone
implements—those with cutting edges—declined with the production of metal ones:
The continuing popularity of these [stone] objects is presumably to be accounted for by
their relative cheapness, wide naturally-occurring availability and, no doubt, an
effectiveness not greatly inferior to any metal counterpart. Perhaps the major advantage
of metal over stone (excepting flint, chert and obsidian) is the keenness and durability of
the edge that can be put on the former: it can be no coincidence that the commonest metal
121
For ethnographic data about the use of stone tools to cut elephant hide, see Frison 1989, 777-778.
122
Experimental archaeology has demonstrated the effectiveness of obsidian blades in cutting and scaling
fish. Moreover, use-wear patterns on obsidian flakes from Franchthi Cave and Uzzo Cave (Trapani, Sicily)
suggest that the stone tools were used to butcher fish. See, Iovino 2002, 203, 206.
123
For a discussion of Minoan obsidian tools, see Evely 1993, 119-141.
124
This is clear from survey data of flaked stones from the southern Argolid: Kardulias and Runnels 1995,
108-109, Table 5.20.
125
Evely 1993, 116.
60