Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Bronze objects : Bronze double axe [Χ1021]

Bronze double axe

Χ1021

Metal (Bronze)

Intact

Length: 17 cm. Width (at centre of axe): 5 cm.

Chamaizi

Souvloto Mouri

Middle Bronze Age. Prepalatial - Protopalatial period, Middle Minoan Ι - II period.:

2000 - 1700 BC:

Gallery:

Case:

Exhibition thematic unit:

Middle Bronze Age - Late Prepalatial-Protopalatial period (2200-1700 BC). From small communities to towns

The emergence of palatial settlements: Towns and houses. Life in the settlements

Description

Bronze double axe with curved cutting edges. It is made in a mould, perhaps of a closed type. It was found outside the east side of the Oval House on the hill of Souvloto Mouri, together with other bronze tools: a second double axe, an axe-adze, a chisel and a knife. These objects formed the toolkit of a Minoan carpenter. The assemblage of bronze tools was discovered by a villager on Souvloto Mouri in Chamaizi and led to the excavation of the site by Stephanos Xanthoudides. As the tools did not come from an excavation, it is uncertain whether they are associated with the Oval House or the earlier buildings excavated underneath it. Double axes were used as woodworking tools from at least the Early Minoan period, although most of the surviving examples are of later date.

Bibliography:

Branigan, K. Aegean Metalwork of the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Oxford, 1974, 134, 164. Davaras, C. "The Oval House at Chamaizi Reconsidered." Αρχαιολογικά Ανάλεκτα εξ Αθηνών V:2 (1972): 283-288. Xanthoudides, S. "Εκ Κρήτης: Προϊστορική Οικία εις Χαμαίζι Σητείας." Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς (1906): 117-156, pl. 7:2.

Author:

E. S.

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