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

landscape (Fig. 3.3b). 145
This change may be the result of greater quantities of tools being
allocated to LH hoards and it is probably related to the custom of depositing metal (tools
in addition to weapons and vessels) in LH II-III burials. The practice of tool hoarding on
Crete remained unchanged throughout the second millennium (Fig. 3.3a), yet there were
significant shifts in hoarding practices on the Greek mainland, Cyprus, Anatolia and
Syria-Palestine by the LBA (Figs. 3.3b, d, e, f). The frequency of Cypriot tools in hoards
increased from 13.6% to 30.2% over the course of the second millennium, while the
Greek mainland witnessed a spike from 9% to 28.3%. It is interesting to note that tools
were hoarded with the same regularity in Mycenaean contexts as on Cyprus, for each of
these two regions has yielded an impressive number of metal caches. The implications
and significance of hoarding metal objects, particularly tools, are explored in Chapter 5.
Distinctive modifications occurred in how Cypriot tools were deposited in the
archaeological record from the MBA to the LBA. A large number of MC implements
(484 examples or 78.6% of the known MC tools) were found in burials; by the LC period,
mortuary finds were surpassed by those in hoards and general settlement contexts (Fig.
3.3d). The decline of tools in burials is perhaps exaggerated by the fact that fewer LC
cemeteries have been excavated than from the MC period.
146
Regardless of this important
problem, the change in depositional practices between the MC and LC periods probably
reflects transformations of a socio-economic and political nature. Catling attributed these
changes to external influence, though his conclusion is too simplistic and does not
145 The decrease of metal tools in settlements may parallel the diachronic distribution of bronze vessels.
Metal vessels were more frequent on the mainland in the early Mycenaean era than after the LH IIIA
period. The shift in the occurrence of bronze vessels likely reflects changes in burial practices (the primary
Mycenaean context for the vessels) from the early LBA to the end of that age. By LH III B period, vessels
appear principally in hoards and treasures rather than graves. See, Matthäus 1980a, 340-342.
146 Catling (1964, 78) summarizes the contextual issues of the LC implements: “Few tools come from
controlled excavations; the larger tools are rarely, if ever, found in tombs, and the majority belongs to
founders’ hoards.”
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