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

(including Ionian sculptors) toiled at Pasargadae, later at Persepolis, and throughout the
entire Achaemenid Empire. 836
Although there are differences in the conditions that enabled the movement of
craftspersons, the previously discussed cases occur when artisans belonged to state-level
societies (regardless of whether that type of social structure existed in the area where the
work was carried out). In decentralized societies, artisans may have freelanced and
837
traveled because of necessity. Such itinerancy seems detectable with production of
Aegean lithics as far back as the Neolithic and EBA—periods that obviously lacked a
state-level social structure. 838 Specifically, Perlès argues that the chipped stone
assemblages from Neolithic Greece suggest “itinerant knappers going from village to
village with their pre-formed or partially flaked cores.” 839 Likewise, if a highly structured
social system collapsed, craftspersons may have been forced to adapt to new economic
conditions. Under this scenario, craft persons, who were formerly dependent upon now-
defunct palaces, may have turned peripatetic while seeking viable work. Several cases of
craftsmanship in the late 13 th and 12 th centuries apply this logic. 840 In the wake the
Aegean collapse, post-palatial Mycenaean smiths, according to Iacovou, moved to
Cyprus and continued to practice their trade on the island. 841
The findings on the Cape
Gelidonya ship are also understood to reflect the economic stress of the late 13 th century.
The bronze materials on the vessel perhaps belonged to a mercantile bronze smith who
836
Nylander 1970; Zaccagnini 1983, 264.
837
This scenario is suggested by Zaccagnini (1983, 259) to explain the lines in Odyssey 17.382-386, which
describe how carpenters among other specialists are welcomed when they come from abroad.
838
Perlès 1992, 136-137; Carter 2008.
839
Perlès 1992, 137.
840
Hitchcock (2005, 693) hypothesizes that the socio-economic situation at this time resulted in the
movement of Aegean craftsmen to the eastern Mediterranean, yet some of her conclusions may be
questioned.
841
Iacovou 2006, 327-328.
355