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

tools from any region or period and the MH utensils are one of the smaller sets in the
dataset. Yet the high incidence of LBA metal tools on the mainland makes the absence of
substantial Mycenaean metal workshops perplexing.
A broad contextual division of the tools reveals general depositional practices
(Fig. 3.2a, b). Hoards; burials; settlements; unstratified/unprovenienced/surface/unknown
contexts; cultic sites or sanctuaries; workshops; and shipwrecks represent the various
categories created for contextual analysis. These are broad classifications that help to
elucidate basic consumption trends. A more detailed, contextual review is undertaken in
Chapters 4 and 5, where the carpentry and masonry implements are used as a case study.
During the early second millennium, the mortuary realm is the preferred context for
deposition, as nearly half of the MBA tools were recovered in burials. Hoard and
settlement contexts were also prominent at this time, but tools from sanctuaries and
workshops are rare. The importance of including metal tools in MBA burials illustrates
that they were valued and collected more for prestige purposes than for specific craft
activities. By the LBA, settlement and hoard contexts became the most popular
destinations for tools, followed by burials (Fig. 3.2a, b). There is a notable increase in
settlement contexts from the previous period, reflecting the wider availability of tools in
the LBA. On the other hand, the frequency of tools deposited in burials declines from the
MBA to the LBA (Fig. 3.2b). One may surmise that tools were markers of prestige and
status more often in the MBA, while their inclusion with the dead became less important
in the LBA when a greater number of tools were in circulation. Objects in the dataset that
have very poor or no contextual information are listed under the chronological category
of “general second millennium.” There are 504 such tools (Fig. 3.1b), while there are 524
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