They would not pass inspection now days and had no safety features. In the Books of the Law an axe head flying off was used as the example of accidental homicide for which a person would not be punished legally and later on you find other examples of axe heads flying off and going hither and yonder.
Things dropped and hard hats were not a thing. Ladders were made of scrap wood, ropes were used until they broke and the main way you transported loose rubble was in baskets that were subject to breaking and tipping.
It just was not a safe profession.
Did some of the people with head injuries die from murder? Probably. But to say they all did or even that the majority did is more then a bit over the top.
Still not enough unsafe tools/ladders, baskets to account for more than a fraction of head injuries like that-experienced workers have always learned to work safe and smart to avoid injury or death. Those injuries are not the only evidence of of the high level of violence in ancient cities in any case-from all I’ve read, heard-and the little bit seen when working on those 5 digs, overcrowded cities have been dangerous places from the getgo-apparently a bad neighborhood was a bad neighborhood in any age...