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

craftspersons is difficult to confirm from tool distributions alone. Textual sources
demonstrate that craft mobility was a common practice among elite sponsors in highly
centralized societies, and perhaps such exchanges occurred in the study area. The
distribution of metal implements indicates that interregional links existed, but
determining the nature of that contact without textual sources is difficult. If more tool kits
become recognized in the archaeological record, the ability to track the movement of
crafts persons will be aided. It must be acknowledged, however, that tools are not ideal
for demonstrating mobility, yet the regional patterns of tool consumption suggest
probable connections and interaction among various regions. This point is explored and
emphasized throughout the study. How the similarities in tool repertories from different
regions came about, and whether such commonalties resulted from traveling
craftspersons, is less clear.
The data that this dissertation is based upon is presented in two catalogues.
Appendix 3 lists the extant metal hoards and the materials found within them, and
Appendix 4 represents the complete collection of MBA and LBA tools that were
compiled in this investigation. The catalogue tool list is divided initially by general
region and subsequently by each site in alphabetical order. Within the entry of each site,
tools are placed in a chronological category: MBA, LBA, or General second millennium.
With the data presented in this way, it is easy to check the quantity and kinds of tools that
have been recovered from a particular site. Rather than a typological listing, this structure
allows for a quick, albeit partial, assessment of how metal resources were consumed at
the local and regional level. It can also indicate (however incompletely) the prominence
of craft work in a region or site as suggested by the presence of metal tools.
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